How to Edit My Writing for the Third Grade

Editing your writing is a challenging, exciting activity.

Third grade is often the time students to begin compiling a set of stories and narratives. The content of these stories can range from fairy tales to what happened over the weekend. In every case, creativity abounds in third-grade classrooms. Editing is not generally the first concern of third-grade writing activities, as students are typically focused on learning the fundamentals of writing, but a few simple steps can help ease the mind of a student eager to do well.

Things You'll Need

• Pencil with an eraser
• English dictionary

Instructions

1. Read through your whole essay or story and get a feel for how the writing sounds as is. You can read it aloud to someone else or just read it to yourself. Make sure your story has a beginning, middle and end that your reader will be able to follow. If you feel that an element of the structure is missing, add a note in the margin as a reminder to yourself and make the necessary changes later.

2. Read through the story a second time, but this time focus on elements such as punctuation and spelling. Ask yourself if the beginning of each sentence was capitalized and if there are periods, exclamation points or question marks at the end of each sentence. Pencil in any corrections. Circle any words you are unsure how to spell.

3. Look up any words that are difficult to spell and replace the misspelled words with the correct spelling.

4. Edit your writing with a classmate or someone you trust. Peer editing can be a fun way to edit a writing assignment and get feedback from another person. You can swap papers and share editing ideas.

Tips & Warnings

• Follow any guidelines set out by your teacher about editing your work.

• Mark lightly with your pencil when editing your writing.

References

• Red Creek Central School District: Writer's Workshop
• Teachers First: Writer's Workshop