This article summarizes a dissertation study designed to determine the effectiveness of instructional interventions that focus on proofreading and editing skills of first-year college students enrolled in business communication courses. The study used a pretest-posttest quasiexperimental control group design and collected data from 56 participants…

Nine activities are suggested that are designed to help students develop skills in utilizing proofreading as an aid to good spelling. Included is a suggested list of word processing and other software which has spelling check features. (IAH)

Five strategies to help students select and learn relevant spelling words include: proofreading and trying to spell misspelled words correctly; choosing words from their proofreading lists that might be useful for future writing; examining useful ways to learn how to spell words; learning related words that they can already spell; and getting…

Evaluates CorrecText, Houghton-Mifflin's computer-based grammar checker that fully parses sentences and finds errors in grammar, style, and usage. Argues that, while CorrecText is an improvement over similar programs, it still cannot accommodate the syntactically ambiguous nature of English. Limits current design's usefulness to unedited prose.…

Presents strategies for incorporation into elementary level spelling programs to help students become real-world spellers. The article explains how to make spelling part of the writing process by expanding the word bank, improving proofreading skills, building dictionary skills, and conducting a roundup spelling test to practice new skills. (SM)

Helping students in grades 3 through 11 to master the mechanics of language, this book describes the "Caught'ya" approach to teaching grammar, in which students correct error-filled sentences that form an ongoing humorous plot. The book notes that the sentences are presented 3 to 5 times a week at the start of class and take less than 10…

Since students enter college with a basic knowledge of the mechanics of writing, including grammar, spelling, and punctuation, most student writing mistakes amount to a failure to see what they have actually written. Thus, instructors must help students to apply knowledge they already have and to see their own errors through careful proofreading.…

Presents two self-correction spelling methods involving either letter-by-letter proofing or whole-word proofing. These methods are seen to be effective and offer benefits to students (faster learning), teachers (ease of implementation), and parents (who can implement the method at home). An insert summarizes methods in spelling instruction. (DB)

In this unit of work, Year 3 children will learn to use the contents and index pages and to extract information about "Teeth and eating" from different types of non-fiction texts, including ICT (Information and Communications Technology) texts. After analyzing a non-chronological report, they will write a report on the subject of…

Discusses aspects of school home pages: school policy, parental involvement and concerns, Internet access and commercial providers, HTML programming, links to other Web pages, graphics, and the importance of proofreading. (PEN)

This article describes the application of a proofreading mnemonic learning strategy for proofreading creative writing assignments. The mnemonic--Ninja Turtles Counting Pizza Toppings--reminds students to check their work for name, title, capitalization, punctuation, and transition words. Application of the strategy, possible pitfalls, and…

In this unit of work, the children will continue to learn about the features of playscripts, through reading and analyzing a play and writing a play based on a narrative. In the course of learning how to interpret and write stage directions, the children will apply their knowledge of adverbs. In the discrete work on vocabulary and spelling, the…

This guide to the Georgia Middle Grades Writing Assessment (MGWA) serves the purpose of improving writing and writing instruction. It includes a description of test administration conditions, a sample test booklet, and a structured overview of the writing assessment. Prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, and proofreading are explained in the…

This book of author-contributed chapters on academic writing grew out of workshops on scholarly writing taught at the University of South Florida. The chapters in part I review the working habits of successful academic authors. The chapters in part II analyze the genres of academic writing. Part III focuses on revision and editing of manuscripts.…

Two fourth grade boys with learning disabilities learned to use the Bank Street Writer III word processing and spelling checker program to edit spelling errors. Both boys learned to manage the spell-checking process and increased the spelling accuracy of their edited texts. Differences in their learning processes and the tool's limitations are…