Educators know that students learn by listening. They learn better by reading. They learn best by taking what they have been told or what they have read and weaving it into a written composition of their own creation.

• Have you ever assigned a paper to be turned in at the end of the grading period?
• Did some students write their paper the night before?
• Were many of the compositions very badly written?
• Was it one big evaluation headache for you?

Many educators feel they lack the expertise to help their students become better writers. Time is also a factor. Simply changing your writing assignment to a Process Approach rather than a Product Approach will encourage your students to produce better papers.

It is not the purpose of this Teaching Referenece to layout this Process Approach; however, may I suggest you explore the 6-Trait Writing Process at some of these excellent sites:

• NW Regional Educational Laboratory (the official 6-Trait Writing Site) - http://www.nwrel.org/assessment/department.asp?d=1
• InterActive Six-Trait Writing Process - http://senior.billings.k12.mt.us/6traits/content/index.htm 6-Trait Writing (your students can publish here) - http://www.kent.k12.wa.us/staff/ljancola/6Trait/6-trait.html
• ReadingLady.com (FREE posters for your classroom are available for printing here) - http://www.readinglady.com/6_Trait_Writing/6_trait_writing.html

It is the purpose of this Teaching Reference to give you some general editing skills and some group editing skills to share with your students.

• Open Microsoft Word.
• Click on the Open button and locate the document you want to edit.
• You may use one of our documents or one of your own.

Even before a document goes into the group editing process, the author should click on the Spelling and Grammar button to edit obvious errors.

Think you have overused a word?

• Select Edit | Find and a dialog box will appear.
• Enter the word in question into the Find what box.
• Click the Find Next button repeatedly to count how many times you have used the word.

You may move around your document without erasing any text by pressing the up, down, left and right arrows on your keyboard.

• Select Edit | Replace and a dialog box will appear.
• Enter the word you want to find in the Find what box. Enter the word you want to replace it with in the Replace with box. Click on the Replace All button or use the Find Next and Replace buttons to edit individual text finds.

• Right-click a word and highlight Synonyms.
• Select a word from the short list if available or click on Thesaurus.
• You will see your word in the Looked Up box, and a list of the different definitions in the Meanings box.
• Highlight a Meaning and you will see possible synonyms in the right box.
• Click on your choice of synonyms and it will appear in the Replace with Synonym box.
• Click on Replace.
• If you would prefer a synonym for one of the listed synonyms, simply click on the synonym in the right box and click on the Look Up button to continue the process.

  Tip: If you open an existing document and press Shift+F5, you will jump directly to the last edit you made. Keep pressing Shift+F5 to jump to each of your previous edits.

• Save your document and pass your disk to the person on your right.

• Select View | Toolbars | Reviewing
• Click on the Track Change button to turn on tracking.

Make changes you want to suggest to the author right in the text.

• Insert some text.
• Delete some text.
• Move some text.
• You can also change any formatting.

Microsoft Word uses revision marks to show the tracked changes, such as strike-through and underlining.

After two people have reviewed your composition, retrieve your disk and open your document.

• View comments in Screen Tips as you pass your cursor over a change.
• Right-click on the change and choose Accept Change or Reject Change.
• You may work through the changes in the order entered by clicking on the Next Change button on the Review toolbar.

The changes are the responsibility of the original author!

Highlighted text is easier for you and your reviewers to see when each scans the document.

• Click on the Highlight button in the Reviewing toolbar.
• Select the text you wish to highlight.
• Change the color by clicking on the black triangle beside the Highlight button. To remove the highlighting, simply click and drag across the words again.

You may make annotations on the screen without changing the document text by typing comments. Address one of the 6-Traits in the Writing Process, e.g. Word Choice—the use of precise, colorful and rich words to communicate.

• Highlight the text on which you want to comment.
• Select the Insert Comment button from the Reviewing toolbar.
• When a comment is added, Word numbers it and records it in a separate comment pane.
• Word then inserts a comment reference mark in the document at the end of the highlighted text and shades the text that is commented on with light yellow.
• Word tracks each reviewer's comment in a distinct color.

After two people have reviewed your composition, retrieve your disk and open your document.

• Click on the Edit Comment button and view comments in the comment pane.
• To make changes with which you agree, you may copy and paste from the comments pane to your composition or type in the change.
• To delete the comment, highlight the comment icon in the composition and click on the Delete comment button in the Reviewing toolbar.
• Word will renumber the remaining comments.

The changes are the responsibility of the original author!