Help your students to become proofreading pros
Your students may not remember a time when digital communication wasn’t the norm, but chances are that you do. Now that we’re well into the age of email and instant messaging, it’s easy to feel like the speed of a reply is more important than the quality of the spelling, punctuation and grammar.
But for any piece of writing to be understandable, it needs to have as few errors as possible. That’s where proofreading comes in.
The term ‘proofreading’ is over 400 years old. Originally it referred to proving that a transcription is an accurate copy of the original before proceeding with publication. Its meaning may have changed over time but the concept is no less valid: checking that text is accurate before it reaches a wider audience.
Teaching resources for proofreading and editing
To help your middle school and high school students hone their proofreading and editing skills, Pagecraft ELA has a range of resources: enough for every month of the year! Here are seven examples with some of their reviews:
Learn about the context and content of Shakespeare’s Macbeth whilst also correcting errors in spelling, punctuation and grammar. Twenty worksheets can be easily used in order as you and your class progress through the play.
60 pages of printable Bingo grids. Task students with finding these errors in their own work, or during peer assessment. Give prizes for the most errors found and corrected – make mistake discovery a positive activity!
‘We used this bingo product after a series of mini lessons on proofreading to reinforce their understanding. It was a lot of fun and made a “not so fun” topic manageable.’ ☆☆☆☆☆
Learn about six different traditions whilst also correcting errors in spelling, punctuation and grammar.
Assign the sheets as a one-pager or a booklet project, requiring students to collect examples of these ‘crimes’ from social media or in the local area, or collect examples of these ‘crimes’ from their own work, or even create examples of these ‘crimes’ to demonstrate their understanding of correct usage!
‘Thank you for such a useful and well made resource!’ ☆☆☆☆☆
My most popular proofreading and editing resource – and it’s free to download!
‘We used it as a whole class game in which students as a team looked for errors. The students got pretty competitive all while learning. This is great!’ ☆☆☆☆☆
Introduce your students to ten examples of classic literature whilst also correcting errors in spelling, punctuation and grammar.
‘This easy to use, just print and distribute resource was a huge hit with my students! Thank you for an awesome proofreading resource!’ ☆☆☆☆☆
12 activities bundled into one product. As I create more resources, I’ll add them to the bundle.
‘My ESL students were engaged and actually enjoy using this. It’s like tricking them into learning.’ ☆☆☆☆☆
‘Punctuation and spelling is something my Dutch students always struggle with and these texts are great for them because they’re all thematic and about different important days in the English speaking world, so they learn a lot about the culture and different days too’ ☆☆☆☆☆
(Did you spot my typo above? ‘Bungle’ wasn’t deliberate but it was too good to take out!)
Top tips for proofreading
What’s the difference between proofreading and reading? Proofreading means reading every word and punctuation mark to be sure that you don’t miss any errors. To achieve this, your students might like to try reading aloud, mouthing as they read or running their finger along each line as they read.
Proofreading isn’t just a skill: it’s a discipline. And a disciplined approach to checking means minimising distractions. When your students proofread away from the classroom, that might involve being somewhere quiet and staying off their phone until they’ve read right through to the end.
Is proofreading a necessary skill?
Just as Word’s spellcheck has been with us for decades, there will always be tools and apps to help reduce spelling, punctuation and grammar errors. Does that make human proofreading skills less valuable?
Far from it. Attention to detail will help your students stand out in the world of work, as will an appreciation for the bad impression that writing mistakes can make. An eye for the erroneous will help them in their personal lives too, from checking bank statements to spotting a phishing email.
And let’s not forget the satisfaction of catching a mistake and stopping it in its tracks, be it to help yourself or to help others.
I hope that you and your students enjoy my resources. If they do, please leave a review: I’d love to know how they get on on their journeys to become error-correcting experts and proofreading pros!