Standard 2: Reading and Writing Process

Students will use a variety of recursive reading and writing processes.

10.2.W.4 Students will edit and revise multiple drafts for organization, enhanced transitions and coherence, sentence variety, and consistency in tone and point of view to establish meaningful texts.

Student Actions 

Teacher Actions 

• Students will revise drafts to maintain organization and a logical sequence of events.

• Teachers model how to revise a draft to maintain organization and a logical sequence of events.
• Teachers provide opportunities for students to revise drafts to maintain organization and a logical sequence of events.
• Teachers provide student feedback on the organization and logical sequence of events of a revised draft.

• Students will use transitions to improve coherence and meaning.

• Teachers model how to effectively use transitions to maintain organization and a logical sequence of events.
• Teachers provide opportunities for students to use transitions.
• Teachers provide opportunities for students to receive feedback on the effective use of transitions in writing.

• Students will write multiple drafts to improve their writing.

• Teachers provide students multiple opportunities to return to the same piece of writing to revise and edit.

• Students will revise drafts to maintain clarity and cohesiveness.

• Teachers model how to revise a draft to maintain clarity and cohesiveness.
• Teachers provide opportunities for students to revise drafts to maintain clarity and cohesiveness.
• Teachers provide opportunities for students to receive feedback on the clarity and cohesiveness of a revised draft.

Supporting Resources 

Teacher Insights 

• Revising and editing are different.

• Revising is to change, rearrange, and elaborate on ideas and content.

• Editing is to change formatting and mechanical issues such as grammar, spelling, and punctuation.

• Example with organization

• Editing: indenting paragraphs, adding or deleting appropriate punctuation

• Revision: moving paragraphs; rewording or ordering sentences within a paragraph to change idea structure

• Example with transitions

• Editing: punctuation, sentence structure correction

• Revision: creating or modifying a transitional phrase

• A comprehensive list of transitions can be found at the University of Wisconsin’s Writing Center as well as ideas for when and how to implement a transition.

• OWL Purdue also provides a comprehensive list of types of transitions and examples of what good and bad transitions look like.

• Example with coherence, cohesion, and flow

• Editing: changing words to stay aligned with audience and purpose to maintain tone

• Revision: reordering/restructuring paragraphs or sentences to maintain tone as aligned with the audience and purpose; elaborating upon, deleting, or adding only evidence/examples/information that corresponds with the overall thesis or purpose

• The University of Massachusetts provides examples of how to maintain flow and cohesion.

• Example with sentence variety

• Editing: punctuation, sentence structure correction

• Revision: adding words/phrases/clauses, combining sentences

• Example with consistent tone and point of view

• Editing: changing accidental second person pronouns to third person pronouns, so the entire essay is consistently in the third person

• Revision: modifying content to ensure tone remains consistent throughout the piece

• Transitions between ideas, paragraphs, and evidence are necessary for an essay’s cohesion and provide guidance for the reader.

• A comprehensive list of transitions can be found at the University of Wisconsin’s Writing Center.

• Students should be using more sophisticated words than so, next, first, etc. These can be used but should be used sparingly. Students should be pushing for more specific words like meanwhile, as soon as, suddenly, etc.

• Sentence variety makes writing more enjoyable for the reader.

• It can also show relationships between ideas and paragraphs.

• Varying types of sentences can also contribute to tone.

• For example, intentionally writing a run-on or lengthy sentence might make the reader feel breathless, possibly contributing to an anxious or suspenseful tone.

• Since writing is recursive, students should be given time away from their drafts to then come back to them with fresh eyes.

• UNC offers guidelines for how to improve an essay by revision practices.

• Students should look to revise and edit organization, sequence, transitions, sentence variety, and coherence.

Due to recursive nature of the standards, it is essential that teachers are aware of how all objectives within and between strands work together for optimal instruction.