Spring-Cleaning Time: Teach Students to Remove the Weeds From Their Writing

Spring-Cleaning Time: Teach Students to Remove the Weeds From Their Writing

During the last weeks of the school year, students are usually scrambling to finish final papers and projects. This is a good time for English teachers to do lessons on the revising and editing stages of the writing process. Such lessons will help students polish their final assignments and will give them tools they can use in the future.

Here’s a lesson I created and taught on what I think is an important part of revising: removing unnecessary words and phrases.

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Lesson Title Spring Cleaning Our Writing: Eliminating the Clutter

Context This lesson should be done when students are in the revision stage of a writing project (any project—essay, short story, article, etc.)

Grades 6–12

Lesson Duration Approximately 40–45 minutes

Objectives

Students will learn to pay close attention to word choice.

Students will learn to avoid/eliminate unnecessary words and phrases.

Students will learn to give peers feedback on tightening their work.

Materials

Students’ first drafts.

Grab bag of random numbers for first cutting activity.

Handout—photocopies of excerpt from Chapter 3, “Clutter,” from William Zinsser’s On Writing Well

Handout—photocopies of the section “Omit needless words” from William Strunk and E. B. White’s The Elements of Style (which just turned 50!)

Agenda

1. Cutting challenge activity. Teacher in role as magazine editor—has received student drafts but there is no space for them to run; gives each student random number of words to cut for pieces to fit a layout. Students will try cutting their work by looking for words that are not pulling their weight. (5–10 minutes)
2. Brief discussion of activity. Students will share editing decisions. (5 minutes)
3. Read aloud. Each student will read from Zinsser excerpt, to learn why eliminating clutter is necessary for clear writing and communication. (Read-aloud method: Number each paragraph of excerpt before copying and distributing. Go around the room in order; each student reads one paragraph.) (10 minutes)
4. Modeling activity. Students will help teacher tighten sample sentences on board. (Teacher creates five random sample sentences; each highlights a different tightening tip.) Hand out Strunk excerpt with examples of needless words/phrases. (5–10 minutes)
5. Peer essay swap. Students have already begun to make some changes to their own drafts; now, students will now suggest cuts to a peer’s draft using the tips from the modeling activity. (10 minutes)
6. Assign homework. Have students input corrections and produce final drafts. (Consider publication of student work in class newsletter on Web site, or have students submit pieces to a publication. See “Appendix on Publishing Student Writing” from Nancie Atwell’s In the Middle.)

Assessment

Were students engaged in looking at their own word choices?

Were students demonstrating understanding during the modeling activity?

Were students suggesting appropriate cuts/edits to their peers?

Include conciseness/elimination of clutter as a criterion on rubric used to assess final projects.

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Additional Resources

Check out Amsco’s Currents in Literature, American Volume and Currents in Literature, World Volume. Each of those books has a mini-lesson and practice exercise on concise writing.

Good luck with the rest of the school year!

--Lauren