Revising Writing as Students Blog
Tips to Improve Student Blogs in Classroom Technology Integration
Aug 26, 2009
Classroom technology integration in the form of student blogs can be a helpful tool to teach students how to revise their writing. Once educators read up on editin student blogs , it’s time to tackle revising.
First thing to keep in mind is the difference between editing and revising. Editing relates to the mechanics of writing – spelling, grammar (verb usage, pronouns) and conventions (capitals, punctuation). Revising relates to content. Does the sequence of the piece make sense? Are the too many details here; has the writer confused the reader there? Is there a more specific word that could be used? How does it flow?
Revising Writing in Student Blogs
There are four strategies that can help students when it comes to revising a blog entry. The first two should occur before the writing ever takes place.
Get Students to Tell a Story Before Writing
First, students should verbally tell the story ten times, perhaps to ten different people if possible. This will help the student focus the story – what is it really about? The student will notice that the later versions of the story telling often begin later in the story, closer to the heart of the story. Unimportant details get left out. Also, through the repeated telling of the story, the writer is getting feedback from the audience. Which parts confuse the listener? What details are essential to the story?
Student Blogs Need Strong Leads
Second, the writer should start with a strong lead. Too often students want to start a story with a summary. For example, “We were going camping in the woods and the mosquitoes were really bad.” A beginning like this is going to lend itself to a lot of rambling, which will be hard to revise. Writers should start with a strong beginning, such as a piece of dialogue, a small action, a noise sound, a sharp description of the setting, or an interesting fact or detail. A beginning like this will almost always put the writer right down in the middle of the story, and this will make revision easier.
Maintaining Focus as Students Blog
Third, when it comes to revision, it’s important to ask “What is the heart of this story? What is it really about? Why is this story important to me? Why did I choose this story to write?” A teacher can direct a student to read his entry aloud and ask at each paragraph whether that portion of the text helps him get to his goal.
Many times, inexperienced writers will find they have written two pages of unimportant material leading up to the important moment. Sometimes a writer wants to write about the time when she kicked the soccer ball into the wrong goal, but she starts in detail with getting out of bed and getting dressed and waiting for breakfast and going out to the car and driving to the game and so on. The story needs to be focused.
In situations like this, teachers should tell student bloggers that their job is to tell the truth about an experience that they want to share. The reader knows what it’s like to get out of bed and eat breakfast. Tell the reader about playing soccer and getting turned around and kicking the ball and watching it sail into the net and how that excitement turns so quickly to dread and humiliation. That’s the heart of the story.
Studen Blogs Are Better With Strong Verbs
Fourth, one thing writers with a well-focused story can almost always revise are verbs. Replacing weak verbs with strong ones will take a good piece of writing and make it even better. Did he climb the pole or shimmy the pole? To help with this, writers can get rid of adverbs. Don’t write that he ate quickly. Tell readers that he gulped down his waffle and eggs before shooting out the back door.
For more information on classroom technology integration and student blogs, teachers can check out related articles on starting student blogs and ways to integrate classroom blogging into a curriculum.
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