As Alisa Daniel with National Writing Project notes, young writers struggle with the concept of creating a draft that they then must edit, thinking that they have exhausted their knowledge of the subject. So it's important for young writers to first examine their writing project to see if they addressed the basics of their assignment. Did they write in the correct point of view (first, second or third person)? Is the voice casual or formal, authoritative or creative? Should the tone be serious, humorous or speculative?
Checking the formatting and paragraphing of a paper may point up if a student structured the project correctly. If the writing is a work of fiction, does it have a notable beginning, middle and end? If the writing is a work of non-fiction, such as an essay, report or argument, does it have an introduction, supporting paragraphs and a conclusion? Within each paragraph, is there a key idea and a transitional sentence to the next paragraph?
Students should review their sentences to ensure that they are complete and not fragments or run-ons. Because the eye will often play tricks on even the most experienced writer, deceiving the reviewer into not spotting duplicate words, run-on sentences and incomplete sentences, it is important to fool the eyes into thinking they are looking at new writing. Do this by reading the project from the end (last sentence) to the beginning, going one sentence at at time. Take each sentence by itself and examine it for completeness.
The final step in the revision checklist should be basic copy editing, which includes checking each sentence for correct punctuation, capitalization and spelling. Students should read their work out loud, and slowly, to catch errors in their work. Or they can examine each sentence for spelling errors by isolating each sentence and examining each word from the period back to the first word of the sentence.