1. Self-reflection on Linguistic Accuracy
I tend to correct major structural and mechanical errors while I am drafting. This typically does not take too much of my time, and in the meantime, I use this quick and on-going checking as a point for myself to brainstorm on what to say in the next line. However, my systematic proofreading does not start until I finish writing the entire draft. Depending on the weight of the assignment (a formal paper vs. a blog post), I use different tools to edit my work. If it is a paper I’m writing for a considerable amount of course grade or for publication, I usually check all language-related issues that seem suspicious and consult grammar books and online corpora for solutions. If it is a piece of informal writing, I typically just use my own knowledge and occasionally google words/phrases that I feel unsure of.
2. Evaluation of My Editing Approach
My editing approach generally works well for coursework-related purposes. It does not work for errors that become fossilized, however. For example, there are certain prepositional and article usages that I constantly have trouble with. Many of them are not exactly grammatical mistakes but are stylistic preferences. Referring to online corpora tools may help to solve this type of problems; however, this takes lots of time, and often I don’t feel worthwhile to invest time to do this.
3. Challenges in Providing Error Treatment
Every teacher may encounter the same temptation at the beginning to try to comment on every major errors that occur in students’ drafts, although most of us know that we are not supposed to do that. I find it challenging to define the specific types of errors I focus on in commenting on a whole class’s drafts because students’ errors differ in types and frequencies. For example, some students may need treatment on every single major type of errors that I have on my list, while others may only have one or two. I often ended up providing feedback on some other issues (e.g., format) for those students who don’t have lots of major language errors. Also, it is extremely important to communicate our purpose and approach of error treatment to our students. If we don’t say anything after providing grammatical feedback, they may quite likely view that they need only to correct the things we have pointed out for them. Word choice errors are also challenging for teachers to comment on, especially if some of us are a big fan of indirect feedback. Without the cultural and language knowledge, students simply cannot get how to correct word choice errors by themselves even if they are being pointed out. Thus, we need to be cautious in simply circling a word choice issue without any explanations. If we want our vocabulary feedback to be truly helpful, we need to proceed one step further in providing rationales and giving examples.
4. Best Ways to Teach Self-editing
Keeping an error log is a good way for students to keep track of the major error types they have made in previous drafts. Students need to be trained to become responsible in editing their own drafts. I also think it is worthwhile to provide mini-grammar-lessons on a weekly basis to help student writers build their self-confidence to do self-editing. Compiling typical ungrammatical sentences from the drafts submitted by the class on a word document is a good way for teachers to provide targeted grammatical feedback. I often make copies of these sentences that I collected from the students’ drafts and distributed to the class for daily editing practice. My students love them! And you can clearly see they become better in correcting the same type of mistakes after a few rounds.
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