Saturday, 31 March 2018

Editing and Proofreading Strategies (B&S3, p36, Study Skill)

What we read

Bixby and Scanlon conclude unit 2 with the usual Study Skills page (2013, p. 26), in this case, the topic is strategies for editing and proofreading work, which is something that we have already practised. 

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My response 

Since they include a peer review exercise as part of each writing task, it is clear that Bixby and Scanlon think that such strategies are an important step in the writing process, which is consistent with the title they give their general review checklist on page 109: "Process Writing Checklist". 
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Their questions

You have already done a review exercise as part of the writing task on page 15, where you wrote on the topic of your own identity. Similarly, there will be a peer review exercise for this week's essay where you discuss the building, structure or similar project that is your chosen topic. 

With this experience to look back on and more coming, it's timely to think about the questions that Bixby and Scanlon use to get us thinking about this study skill. 

Their questions are: 

  • When do you edit or proofread your writing? What are the different times you edit your writing both in various courses and outside of school? 
  • When do you do your most careful editing? Why?
     
  • How do you edit or proofread your own writing?
     
  • Do you ever ask a classmate to check your writing? Why or why not? 

My question 

  • Should you peer review your classmates' work? Why or why not?  
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Reference

  • Bixby, J. & Scanlon, J. (2013). Skillful Reading & Writing: Student's Book 3. Oxford: Macmillan Education

25 comments:

  1. Since it's the extra question that I added, you might guess that my own is the one that really interests me. I like Bixby and Scanlon's questions, which help us to focus on important issues in editing our work, but I did also want to think about the pros and cons of peer review.

    First, it's probably obvious how peer review helps the writer of a piece of work: they get feedback from an independent reader who can point out both strengths and weaknesses that they might not have noticed. This helps the writer to revise so that the piece of work is stronger.

    But the main reason I ask you to do peer review is that it helps the reviewer to improve their own writing. The review skills you practice in peer reviewing can be applied to your own work to help you see it more objectively as a reader might so that you can make your own writing stronger.

    Unfortunately, proofreading is a very different skill to reviewing, and I often find it useful to get someone else to check my work because I missed when I was typing are very easy to miss again. But it also helps me to proofread some time after I've finished the piece of writing. That seems to let me approach is as something new by another author, and i often notice mistakes that I'd missed earlier.

    But it's impossible to be perfect – even the excellent New York Times writers regular make small typing mistakes that they later need to correct. In fact, The New York Times used to have a regular column where an editor discussed the worst grammar mistakes they had made over the past week.

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  2. Different times that I prefer proofread or editing the writing is outside of school because after I get to get my mind somewhere else I will have better understanding and judgement toward the writing. If I do it in courses, my brain can get stuck on the old ideas and could not see another.
    I prefer it to be the middle of my free day after I have enjoy my meal and afternoon tea, so my brain will be ready.
    Rereading it after I took a while break of the writing I have written.
    Yes, I prefer to ask my classmates to take a look at my writing, because it will give me an idea if my writing is effective or not. Whether, it can give the good examples and make readers understand the main idea or not. and they ma have some other ideas I have not think of.

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    1. I like Sine's phrase "stuck on old ideas." This had not occurred to me, but another good reason to get someone else to review your work is that they can bring a different set of ideas to the same question.

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    2. Your ideas are grate. Sometimes, it might be difficult to write anything and prove it under the pressure or un-proper places. When I read your idea, I would change my mind to done the work under my stress.

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    3. I have the same problem on sticking with my own idea ,and can't see the better alternative ways to express my thoughts. Especially when I finished my first SOP draft,in my opinion, it was really impressive and completed, but after I let my friends review it, they came up with a lot of useful comments about what I was missing.

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  3. I always edit my writing after I finish my work and I spend 5-10 minutes. Actually, I do it with careful editing because I want to correct my gramma and recheck my vocabulary. I just read it but don't have any criteria or checklist to follow. I used to ask my classmate to read it before I send my job but most of my job is checked by myself. Althought I really want someone to peer review my writing, I don't sure that I can reproof other job because my english skill is poor.

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    Replies
    1. It is good that your prove your English by yourself, I agree that. I think no need to talk about the criteria to check because it just follow grammar, idea and coherence
      Lastly, do not look down yourself. You have great English skill, so you can check others' writing then shared the idea. This method will help you to improve your skill also.

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    2. If you don't have someone else to help you proofread and edit your work, the website Peter recommended is very good assistant.

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  4. 1 I usually proofread and edit right after the essay is done, but sometime i find out that proofread and edit after one or two day after I will have less bias to the essay,and can edit it more efficiently.

    2 I usually do the editing at night because it is quite ,and normally I have much more concentration during the night time.

    3 I would scan for grammatical mistakes at first, then move to consider the word I use whether it is necessary or not, or do I choose the right words.

    4 I used to ask my friends for helping me when I finished my first SOP draft. Because if I check it by myself I may not see the mistakes I made .or maybe I miss some important point.

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    1. I agree that editing work one or two days later after finishing it would be helpful and effective because we can see some mistakes and may be come up with better ideas.

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    2. I agree with you that maybe we don't see the mistakes of our own work. It happens to me many times. I always think that it's completely correct. But actually it has some mistakes.

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    3. Agree with your ideas that we should leave our work for a couple days, and then back to reread and edit it. It helps clear our mind and is easier to correct or edit our work. I also prefer working at night. Its silence is good for my working that helps me concentrate on what I'm doing. However, I'm sometimes too tired to focus on it at night.

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    4. Your idea that night editing is well. I also do my job at night because it's quiet and I can more concentrate.

      Peer review is a good way to do, however, sometime my friends are too busy and have less time to review my job. I heard that there are freelance English proofers, they may help us if we have to send an important writing.

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    5. 1. I agree that proof reading after a day is more effective than do it immediately after
      4. This one is similar to me I ask my friend to read my SOP as well and I ask just two friends ,if more than this it will make it's too complicate.

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  5. I edit or proofread after I finish the sentence or the entire paragraph.

    I am most careful editing when the work is really important. It affect my grade a lot or it is related to an important work.

    I check grammar, wording ,and concise and clear idea.

    I ask my classmate to help check my work. However, sometimes they are too busy to help me check it.

    I think peer review is great because I can know how can I improve my writing skills. I can screen how they write and adapt it with my works.

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  6. I always edit and correct my writing after I done it as well, but sometimes I check it before I start to write the new paragraph. About the time, I do not fix the time to edit my writing. If i have plenty of time or during in the subway, I will do it. Also, it need to read carefully, especially the statement of purpose which I will send to apply to graduate school because the grammar mistakes will make it look informally. Therefore, it does not good for consideration in order to admit to the university. For this reason, I always send my statement of purpose to my English teacher for proof its, so that is why my classmates do not prove my writing. In contrast, I would be happy to ask them to check my writing and help them to check their own because we can help each other to improve English skills.

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  7. I edit my writing after I finish my writing immediately.
    Sometimes I check it again after a day.
    I usually edit my work in the morning because I think that time my brain is blank and more clear than other times.
    I think I edit my writing by checking spelling words, conjunction, and tense.
    I have ever asked my classmate to check my work because they might be have better ideas to correct my work.

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    1. Editing your writing in the morning is another time i think it is good to so proofread. For myself, I chose afternoon to be my time after I have had a meal and afternoon snacks.

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    2. I always check my writing after finish its also. Morning time will lead you to have creatively idea. I absolutely agree with you.

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  8. I usually proofread and edit my work after finish one paragraph, and do the final proofreading and editing when finishing the whole piece of work. If in school or in classes, I prefer looking at it twice - one after finishing the work and the other after the previous proofreading and editing, or as many as I can within time limit. But when at home or outside school, I usually proofread and edit my work several times. For example, I read each paragraph carefully and edit some ideas that don't fit the topic for the first proofreading, the recheck the content again for the second time. If I'm consent with the content, then do the third check for finding any typos like misspelling and grammar. I'll read the whole piece of work for one last time before submitting.

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    1. I like your method how you will take a several looks at you writing, again and again. Each time is to aim for different type of mistake . This is a very effective idea to do a proofread.

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  9. 1) Both sometimes I edit immediately after I finish first draft and sometimes I do it after a day.
    2) I like to edit in the morning because it is time I feel fresh and can concentrate on detail and like to do that at my office's library.
    3) Honesty, I barely do proof reading but if I have time enough I would like to use program that Peter give to us is quite effective tool.
    4) I do it sometimes when it is an important one for example when I write SOP to apply to a university.
    5) We should do peer work because sometimes we do not know about our mistakes. We knows what we try to say but sometimes other are not understand with the ways we write. Therefore, it is good to let friend review our work.

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    Replies
    1. Yes. sometimes I have no idea what I make mistake or error until I read my friends' work. It is a good idea to review peers' work if I have time.

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    2. Editing with the website that Peter gave us is very effective.

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  10. I always proofread after i write it done.Actually.I check my grammar and vocab carefully to make sure that i'm correct.Classmates are also a good choices to proofread your writing



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