Teaching Secondary Students to Write Effectively

E X A M P L E   1.2f.

Recommendation 1 

(continued)

Sample writing strategies for the editing component of the writing process

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Writing strategy

Most relevant genres

How to execute the strategy

COPS

42

 

Any genre

Have I Capitalized the first word of sentences and proper names?

How is the Overall appearance?

Have I put in commas and end Punctuation?

Have I Spelled all words correctly?

Job cards

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Any genre

Divide students into small groups and assign each student in the group a 

different “job card.” The card will describe that student’s job when editing 

the papers of the other students in the group. For example, one person’s job 

may be to look for spelling errors, another person’s job may be to ensure 

the paper contains strong verbs and consistent verb tense, and a third per-

son’s job may be to verify that the paper uses quotation marks properly 

throughout. Students should continue to trade papers within their small 

groups until they have performed their job on each student’s paper.

Peer editing

Any genre

Trade papers with a classmate and edit your peer’s paper. Focus on one or 

two key areas during your review. For example, you may focus on whether 

the writer’s ideas are well-organized and clear, word choice is appropriate 

for the target audience, or thesis statement makes a strong claim.

2.  Instruct students on how to choose and apply strategies appropriate for the audience 

and purpose.

After students learn different strategies, 

teach them to evaluate the available strate-

gies and choose the most appropriate one 

for each situation. Provide students with a 

list of questions to consider when evaluating 

and selecting a writing strategy (see Example 

1.3). Consider adding an exercise to a writing 

assignment that prompts students to describe 

the strategy they used for the assignment, 

what influenced their selection, and how the 

strategy helped them (or failed to help them) 

to write for their audience or purpose.

To promote the critical selection of strategies 

instead of the rote use of strategies, identify 

opportunities for students to use writing 

strategies in new ways and in different con-

texts. For example, challenge students to use 

a familiar strategy for a writing assignment in 

another discipline or at home. Have students 

discuss and think about how they need to 

modify a strategy for a new task, discipline, 

or situation. Students can then try their  

modified strategy and consider how well  

their adaptation worked.