Does your teen sometimes end up spending waaaayyyyy too much time on their assignments and essays?
This week, after an email from a dad concerned about the amount of time his daughter spends editing, re-drafting and sometimes re-writing whole chunks of her assignments, I’m sharing with you the 3 pillars that underpin the whole reviewing and editing process.
*NEW!*
If you prefer to read rather than watch, scroll down for the written version 🙂
I recently had an email from a dad, concerned about the amount of time his daughter spends on her assignments, in particular, going back over, changing, editing and re-editing her assignments after receiving feedback and in the final days before submission.
And I totally get it. For many dedicated students there is an element of perfectionism at play here, as well as of course, wanting the achieve the best result they can.
This is why my official taglines are to help students get happy, smart and successful and to have them achieve their best possible success AND enjoy the journey along the way. With a lot of emphasis on that AND 😉
That’s what these blog videos are all about and why my 10 Week Program and other Write Like and A-Grader training are centred around making study as EFFICIENT and STREAMLINED as possible for teens today.
So that they do actually have time for other interests and hobbies, to just sit and relax at home, to hang out friends and even do things just for fun.
Now, being efficient in reviewing and improving any piece of work is so much easier when students have a system to follow. Otherwise any changes or edits end up being haphazard and yet more re-reads are needed after each round of edits.
And while I could do a whole video on just each step of the system it’s really more than I can cover in this blog video, so what I’d love to share with you are the 3 pillars that really underpin or rather hold up that whole reviewing and re-drafting process.
Because if your teen can at least be aware of and start to address each of these, then they will not only be producing a higher quality finished product, but they’ll also be on their way to doing it more systematically too.
- The first pillar is matching up a piece of work with the success criteria or the marking rubric. Students should be provided with this for most longer or larger tasks completed outside of exam conditions.
Your teen needs to go through and carefully compare their work with the demands of the grade they are targeting and also the grade above – in a shoot for the moon and land among the stars kinda way. Because if they slightly miss something in their target grade, but DO have some elements of the grade above, then that should be enough to have them achieve their target.
They need to check – are they addressing all the criteria and giving enough EVIDENCE in their work that they are meeting them at the required level?
For example – if it says ‘gives a variety of sources or uses a wide range of references’ then they need to consider:
> How many they have (the amount required will increase as students move up year groups and will depend on the subject and task).
> Where did they come from – they need to show a range of different types. Again this will vary depending on the subject and task, but they certainly need to be academically credible and reliable sources,.
> How have they integrated them into their writing and USED them within their assignment. Are they discussed, compared and analysed, or are they just shoe-horned in?
2. The second pillar is making improvements to improve their overall communication and writing quality. This might be adjusting the structure, for example re-ordering paragraphs so that the points flow more and have closer linkages.
It might be using more technical vocabulary going to the thesaurus to look for more interesting words. It might be extending an explanation to improve the level of analysis. Or it might be combining or re-writing sentences to make more complex points more coherent in an investigation, or to provide more impact through shorted sentences in a speech or narrative.
3. The THIRD pillar is making corrections – ensuring there aren’t any simple errors.
Because sloppy mistakes can not only cost students in any marks specifically allocated to their writing quality, or the spelling, punctuation and grammar, but even if there aren’t any criteria specific to this, it is important in terms of the impression it makes on the marker about the type of student they are. That can be the difference as to which side of the fence the marker comes down on in any other decisions about ANY and ALL of the other criteria. So, yes – impressions from spelling, punctuation and grammar are important and so solid proofreading is essential.
OK – so quick review :0)
The first pillar of reviewing and editing is matching up their work with the marking criteria.
The second is improving their communication and the quality of their writing,
The third pillar is correcting any slips, errors or mistakes, by proofreading their spelling, punctuation and grammar.
Thanks so much for reading!
Until next week, let’s make this a fantastic week! 🙂
Katie
P.S. I’d love to know whether or not this text version is rocking people’s socks. I’d love it if you’d drop me a quick email or FB message and let me know 🙂
