One of the most arduous tasks a writing tutor faces is 
getting children to edit their work. Although many students have been taught the role of editing in the writing process from an early age, it does not make the act of taking one last look over their work any easier. Perhaps it is our perfectionist tendencies that dread finding mistakes. On the other hand, it maybe that we like time to revel in the feelings of relief associated with writing the last line of an assignment. The glory of putting the pencil down and exhaling “finished” is quickly dashed when you need to pick it back up and read over the assignment again looking for errors.
In our work with school age children, we have found that a few simple adjustments to the editing process makes the experience a bit more palatable to most students:
1. Take a Break – Almost all writers will agree that it is necessary to take a break from a piece writing before returning to edit your work. Fresh eyes will catch more mistakes than tired ones.
2. Read it Aloud – Asking students to read aloud their work will not only help them discover spelling and grammatical errors but it gives them a sense of how their writing flows. An assignment that is choppy or too wordy would probably benefit from short, concise sentences and/or the insertion of transitional words.
3. Baby Steps – Many students become overwhelmed by the process of editing because there are too many elements to keep track of. In order to simplify the process, younger students can focus on the basic principles of proof-reading, often represented by the acronym C.O.P.S (capitalization, overall appearance, punctuation, spelling), while older students can also edit the structure of their paragraphs or entire essays. If a student tends to make the same mistake repeatedly (for example, mis-spelling complex words like necessarily, or conveniently) s/he should always be mindful of checking.
4. Put on the Editor Hat – In the professional world editing is a designated profession filled with individuals with a cultivated skill set. Being an editor is special, you have the final word on how a piece of writing will be presented and often hold executive power in a organization. By making students aware of the power of an editor, and perhaps even giving them a prop, like an editors hat or special pen, teachers and parents can make the experience qualitatively different.
