Everyday Editing: Inviting Students to Develop Skill and Craft in Writer's Workshop

Editing is often seen as one item on a list of steps in the writing process—usually put somewhere near the end, and often completely crowded out of writer's workshop. Too many times daily editing lessons happen in a vacuum, with no relationship to what students are writing.

In Everyday Editing, Jeff Anderson asks teachers to reflect on what sort of message this approach sends to students. Does it tell them that editing and revision are meaningful parts of the writing process, or just a hunt for errors with a 50/50 chance of getting it right—comma or no comma?

Instead of rehearsing errors and drilling students on what's wrong with a sentence, Jeff invites students to look carefully at their writing along with mentor texts, and to think about how punctuation, grammar, and style can be best used to hone and communicate meaning.

Written in Jeff's characteristically witty style, this refreshing and practical guide offers an overview of his approach to editing within the writing workshop as well as ten detailed sets of lessons covering everything from apostrophes to serial commas. These lessons can be used throughout the year to replace Daily Oral Language or error-based editing strategies with a more effective method for improving student writing.

• 10 Things Every Writer Needs to Know
• Revision Decisions: Talking Through Sentences and Beyond
• Mechanically Inclined: Building Grammar, Usage, and Style into Writer's Workshop
• After THE END, Second Edition: Teaching and Learning Creative Revision
• The Quickwrite Handbook: 100 Mentor Texts to Jumpstart Your Students' Thinking and Writing
• Grammar Keepers: Lessons That Tackle Students′ Most Persistent Problems Once and for All, Grades 4-12 (Corwin Literacy)
• Patterns of Power: Inviting Young Writers into the Conventions of Language, Grades 1-5
• 180 Days: Two Teachers and the Quest to Engage and Empower Adolescents
• Vocab Rehab: How do I teach vocabulary effectively with limited time? (ASCD Arias)
• Write Like This: Teaching Real-World Writing Through Modeling and Mentor Texts