Mentor Text Tip Tuesday: One Thing at a Time

Tip:

Revise one thing at a time. If you are working on describing the setting, then only work on composing and revising the setting. As a writer myself, revising a whole host of things at one time can be overwhelming. Many professional writers I know do several passes of revision, focusing on one or two things at a time, usually working from big picture problems down to word level revisions.

For students, it is helpful to have them focus on only one thing at a time. Of course, we eventually want them to put all of the things they’ve learned together. Here is an example of a revision sheet where we just looked at vivid verbs in their stories.