Maine Learning Technology Initiative

Thanks to everyone who attended yesterday’s webinars. I’m grateful that the power stayed on throughout both sessions and we were able to get through them. The discussion in the chat box was lively in both sessions and we learned a lot from each other. Here are the highlights:

What is the difference between revision and editing?

A few thoughts from the participants:

• I think anyone (teacher, peer, e.g.) can edit. Revising is done by the original author.
• When I think of editing, I think of making corrections to obvious errors (ie. punctuation, spelling).  When I think of revising, I think of making improvements to getting the thought process on the paper in an organized fashion.
• Revising is structural where editing is correcting errors.
• Editing is the mechanics and revising is adding details, voice, etc.
• Revising is ideas; editing is mechanics.  Together they make a piece of writing.
• I think of revision as improvement and editing as correcting.
• I think revisions go beyond surface.
• Revising working with content; Editing working with mechanics etc.
• Revising is improving content, editing is improving the punctuation and stuff.
• Revision=changing what you’re saying, editing=polish.
• Editing is for correcting mechanical parts and revising is re-working the language
• Revising is thought based and editing is more mechanical.
• Editing to me is more like correcting a grammatical error, spelling, etc. Revising involves more: changing
• Revisions are content, editing-making ideas fit frameworks

Organizing Drafts and Showing Progress

Teach students to organize drafts (as well as prewriting and organizing materials) in folders and use naming conventions for files. Have students use “Save As” to keep copies of all drafts to show their progress.

Taking Advantage of Flexible Text

Be sure students know how to manipulate text with copy or cut and paste, select and replace, find and replace, and drag and drop. Students are more likely to make real revisions in their writing when they no longer have to completely rewrite each new draft.

Writing Applications

Give students choices. Some have features that particular students need.

Applications on the MLTI MacBook:

• TextEdit
• NoteShare
• Pages
• NeoOffice (will not be included in next image but can be added)

Coming on next image:

• WriteRoom (distraction-free writing)

Others to try (free downloads that can be dropped in the MyApps folder):

• AbiWord
• Bean
• OpenOffice

Editing Tools

• Spellcheck and grammar check built into most word processing programs (Check out Pages Proofreading)
• Online tools
  • SpellCheck.net
  • SpellChecker.net
  • Orangoo
• The spellchecker poem: Candidate for a Pullet Surprise

Dictionaries and Thesauri

On Your MacBook

• Dictionary
• OmniDictionary

Online Tools

• Lexipedia
• Visuwords
• OneLook
• Wordnik

Why we love Alex…

Alex is a relatively new voice for Leopard that can be a great editing tool. Follow the directions for setting up a key stroke for reading selected text.

Grammar, Usage, and Writing Conventions Resources

• Dr. Grammar
• Confusing Words
• Common Errors in English
• Purdue OWL
• Grammar Girl

Resources from participants in the chat box:

• Reading Misspelled Words
• Magnetic Poetry
• Checklist Generators
• Merriam-Webster Online
• Mac OS X help for text to speech and speech recognition
• Dragon NaturallySpeaking (speech to text)

Image by Natalie Roberts licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.

This week’s webinar in the Writing Process Lens is Drafting, Revising and Editing. It’s all about the words – drafting, revising, redrafting, revising, drafting some more, and when all the words seem to be the right ones in the right order… editing. The beauty of digital text is that it is flexible and easily changed, allowing students to make real revisions more easily than they can on paper. We have found that when revising doesn’t require rewriting the whole piece, students are more willing to do it. We’ll take a look at the features of various applications for word processing and discuss how we can help students choose which to use. We’ll also talk about how to organize a formal writing project, saving and archiving notes and drafts to show progress in the writing process.

When the revisions are done, it’s time to edit and we’ll talk about using spelling and grammar checkers as well as other tips for helping students find and fix errors. I’ll also share some of my favorite web resources for learning more about grammar and writing conventions and, as always, I’ll invite participants to share theirs.

Please join us Thursday, January 14 at 3:15 or 7:15 pm. You can find links for registration and information about how to access these sessions by clicking on the Webinar tab at the top of this page.

Illustration by Ann Marie Quirion Hutton

Sportswriter Red Smith said, “There’s nothing to writing.  All you do is sit down at a typewriter and open a vein.” Short of opening a few veins, how can teachers help students become better writers? Unlike Red Smith, our students have much more powerful tools at their fingertips but are they really taking advantage of the technology or is it just a substitution for paper and pencil or even a typewriter?

Most people who have access to a computer have used it for word processing. In fact, for many of us, it’s the first thing we learned to do on a computer and it’s one of the first things we teach our students to do. The problem comes when we confuse word processing with writing. Word processing is all about how the words look on the screen and, if you choose to print, on paper. Word processing is preparing your writing for publishing. The actual writing happens in many stages, some of those stages occurring before any sentences are formed. 

One thing we’ve learned in seven years of the Maine Learning Technology Initiative is that students who use their laptops for all stages of the writing process score better on writing assessments than those who just type their final copies in a word processing program. They may use software and web tools to brainstorm ideas, to do research, to organize information and ideas, to storyboard, to outline, to write drafts, to give and get feedback on those drafts, to revise, to edit, and finally to publish. And often the published piece is something other than the conventional written story or report. 

In the next few months we’ll be looking through the lens of the writing process at digital tools, strategies and teaching practices that can help our students become better writers. We’ll explore ways that the software on our MLTI image as well as some Open Education Resources (OER) can support all kinds of individual and collaborative writing efforts across all curricular areas. We hope you’ll join the conversation and share your experiences and expertise in this blog, and in our webcasts.