In a previous blog entry, I discussed how to help your child deal with writer’s block. In that entry, I suggested that you allow your child to write down all of her ideas on the page without too much worry about spelling and grammar at that point. That is not to say that spelling and grammar aren’t important. Indeed, they are vitally important. Oftentimes students will write down their ideas and then think they are finished. They forget the importance of the editing phase. I cannot stress enough that students need to understand that editing is a separate but extremely important part of the writing process.

One suggestion I have to get the most out of the editing phase is to really treat it as a separate experience. I would strongly encourage your child to take a break between writing a first draft and editing. Ideally, I would suggest at least a day in between these two phases, but if that’s not possible then at the very least allow him a break time of at least 20-30 minutes. Your child needs this mental rest before tackling editing. It will also help him to look at the writing piece with fresh eyes.

When I would help my own children with editing their work, I would give them a special red pencil used only for this part of the process. I would explain that, for years, this is how professional editors used to edit manuscripts. It was amazing to see that something as simple as a new color could get my children excited to edit. I’ve also heard of students who go to a special editing chair or desk for this phase. Any way to distinguish the editing process from the writing process is a good one.

To begin the editing phase, have your child (with pen ready to mark) read the entire writing piece out loud. This is an easy way to catch several mistakes, especially repeated words, missing words, subject/verb agreement errors, and confusing sentences. If your child tends to write in run-on sentences, this is also a good time to fix this as you can encourage your child to add appropriate punctuation where she naturally pauses during reading.

Correcting spelling mistakes can be daunting. It would be worthwhile to check with your child’s teacher to see if your child is meant to correct every spelling mistake or just pick some to correct. Either way, I would recommend having your child deal with spelling mistakes during a second go-around at editing. Encourage your child to circle words that he isn’t 100% sure he’s spelled correctly. Depending on his facility with a dictionary, he may need help finding the correct spelling. If the teacher requires every word to be spelled correctly, your child may need your guidance to identify other words he has misspelled. It would be helpful to make a list of words your child commonly misspells and keep that list handy so that he can use that list to help him instead of always having to go to the dictionary.

With a bit of encouragement along the way, your child should soon become a whizz at editing. Best of luck!