Living Life Twice

Available research data shows children provided with opportunities to write every day begin to compose even when they are not actually writing. In other words, they begin to think about their writing beyond the confines of the classroom.  There is  immense satisfaction gained from hearing students, who upon entering the classroom first thing in the morning announce ‘ I know what I’m going to write about today ’ They indicate clearly that they understand the power of writing. They think as writers do. Unless students have this daily opportunity to write they will not develop the ability to think through their writing. They will not fully understand the process of writing. Donald Greaves suggested that young writers require a minimum of four days per week to write for their own purposes. This, he believed assisted the ‘learning to think’ process to develop. It is therefore important to approach the teaching of writing from the position that students will be provi...

In the new Victorian Curriculum, under the heading ‘writing,’ I came upon this statement regarding editing.   ‘Editing: Reread and edit for meaning by adding, deleting or moving words or word groups to improve content and structure.’ This sounds very much like revision. Surprisingly though, I could find no reference to revision in the documentation. I found this concerning. So, are the authors confused? Editing versus Revision Both editing and revising are designed to make the writing piece ‘reader friendly.’ They provide opportunities to raise the writer’s awareness of audience. What is the difference between editing and revision? Enter a classroom and you will frequently hear these terms used interchangeably by teachers and often to the detriment of students and their writing efforts. If teachers are unsure about these processes, students are disadvantaged. Such confusion hinders the growth of writing development. Is this Editing or Revision? Wh...