First: Focus on organization. Is the point of the story clear? Does the sequence move the story along? Is there any extraneous or repetitive information? Is there anything missing?
Second: Focus on language. Do the sentences tend to have the same structure? Are certain words overused? Are there any drab or cliched words or images that need to be replaced?Is the tone appropriate? Does the writer's voice come across?
Third: Copyediting. Final check on spelling, grammar, punctuation, and other print conventions.
By making each step clear, we hope that students really understand what revision entails. Today they began working on revising at the organizational level, and students took the lessons to heart. Paragraphs and sentences were added, moved, expanded, restructured, and deleted. In addition to students re-reading their own work, they received a lot of feedback from the staff and their peers.
These are some of the stories that students are working on:
- Parents pushing kids too much in sports
- Underground car racing
- Girls vs. boys lacrosse
- Is UNC the team to beat in this year's NCAA basketball tournament?
- How the media is going overboard in their coverage of LeBron James
- Debating the fairness of committing a handball to block a shot (a HUGE topic of conversation since the Ghana vs. Uruguay game)
There was also time to play shark attack.
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