Let’s face it, no one likes editing – knocking out a 15,000 word dissertation wasn’t exactly fun, but it was a piece of cake compared to the agony of editing it – so no wonder our youngsters aren’t all that keen. But good editing makes a huge difference to the marks we get – the 15,000 words resulted in a Merit, so the pain was worth it in the end. No one, that’s right No One, writes flawlessly on a first draft. 

I often come across youngsters that don’t really understand quite what is required of them at the editing stage of a piece of work. In class I used to give students editing cards with  a list of tasks and I’d tell them which tasks they needed to complete. I colour-coded tasks, for easy marking and gave mega house-points as rewards. It worked a treat in class, but what about exams?

I’ve attached a quick crib sheet below (editing tips), a quick draft produced for one particular student but a good starting point. It doesn’t cover spelling because, frankly if you are anything like me the chances are your brain tells you what it expects to see rather than what you actually wrote, and anyway spelling is a whole extra area. I’ve also attached my editing sheets from schooldays. Feel free to download them.

Remember, good editing can scoop up masses of extra marks.

So get editing folks.

Editing our work 1 and 2   editing tips