Revising and Editing

Narrative Revising and Editing

​Revising

• ​After authors complete a draft, they revise their work by asking themselves (or a peer) how they can improve the content of their writing.​

• ​Content refers to the ideas and details of a piece of writing. For our narrative drafts, we should make sure that we have:

  1. A clear beginning, middle, and end to the story

  2. ​Multiple characters with unique personalities

  3. Believable and purposeful dialogue between characters

  4. An example of dramatic irony where the audience knows something a character does not

  5. ​Humor created through the use of dramatic irony

​Revising Practice

1. ​Read the story on the right.

2. ​For each of the following questions, you will practice revising this story by offering suggestions to the author.

Open Ended

What could the author do to make the event in sentence 3 feel more believable to a reader?

Open Ended

How could the author revise sentences 3, 4, and/or 5 to include an example of dramatic irony?

Open Ended

What details could the author include in sentences 1 and/or 2 that would make the story more engaging for a reader?

Editing

• ​Before composing a final copy, authors must edit their drafts by checking to see if they have made any capitalization, grammar usage, punctuation, or spelling errors.

• ​For our narratives, we will check to make sure that:

Multiple Choice

"There was never a doubt in my mind said Billy. I know that Mr. Mulville is the greatest rapper of all time."

Which option is the correct way to edit this sentence?

• "There was never a doubt in my mind, said Billy." "I know that Mr. Mulville is the greatest rapper of all time."

• "There was never a doubt in my mind," said Billy. "I know that Mr. Mulville is the greatest rapper of all time."

• Okay as is

Multiple Choice

"I love French Toast!" exclaimed Mr. Mulville. "Well I think it's disgusting," replied Mrs. Elliott.

What should be done to correctly edit the dialogue?

• Quotation marks should only be included for the first sentence.

• There should be a period instead of a comma after "disgusting".

• The second sentence should start on a new line.

Multiple Choice

Choose the sentence that is correctly punctuated.

• Whales are known to be the largest living animals in the world.

• The blue whale is the largest existing whale weighing 130 tons, and measuring 115 feet in length.

• Imagine the length of approximately three school buses parked end to end and you will have the size of a whale.

• Blue whales are known to be larger than any other dinosaur, that lived years ago.

Multiple Choice

A student is writing a story for class. Read the sentences from her story and answer the question that follows.

My friend, Jessica, and I were excited about the upcoming school winter dance to be held next week. We plan to meet at the nearby mall on Friday around 4:00pm to do some shopping. While we shop at our favorite clothing store, Jessica saw her friend Elisha. She decides to shop with Elisha instead of me. I was so disappointed that I walk home without buying anything. I cannot believe I miss my sixth grade winter dance because I didn't have anything new to wear.

Choose one way the underlined words could be changed to keep the verb tense the same.

• plan, shopped, decides, walked, miss

• did plan, were shopping, then decided, began walking, missed

• planned, shopped, decided, walked, missed

Multiple Choice

Which of the following has correct capitalization?

• "I can't go," Paul explained, "Because I have baseball practice."

• "I can't go," Paul explained, "Because i have baseball practice."

• "I can't go," paul explained, "because I have baseball practice."

• "I can't go," Paul explained, "because I have baseball practice."

Multiple Choice

Which of the following has correct capitalization?

• In mrs. lee's class, we're reading "the lightning thief".

• In Mrs. Lee's class, we're reading "The Lightning Thief".

• In mrs. Lee's class, we're reading "The lightning thief".

• In Mrs. lee's class, we're reading "The Lightning Thief".