Editing literacy materials

Anything written to be read by someone besides the author needs to be edited. The editing process may occasionally be as simple as the author checking over a text and making quick corrections. It may be a more complicated process involving several people and extensive rewriting and correcting.

What to look for when you edit literacy materials ranges from the smallest details of punctuation to the overall logic and structure of long texts.

In some situations, such as a beginning writers workshop, you may not be concerned about producing perfectly edited texts. You would be more interested in producing stories that encourage the authors and please the audience. Other situations, such as the production of textbooks for a school system, would require careful editing of the materials being produced.

Follow these guidelines when you edit most literacy materials:

• Have the people developing the materials start the editing process by checking their own work.

• Have qualified people not involved in developing the materials also edit them.

  Reasons
  • They can check the materials with a fresh, objective outlook.
  • If they are skilled in the language and at editing (as they should be), they may be better qualified than the developers to check the materials.
• Continue the editing process by having people who test the materials check editing details also.

• Edit the content.
• Edit the structure.
• Edit the mechanical style.

• Task module: Editing literacy materials, by Leah B. Walter and Trudy K. Stewart (editor, compiler)
• In task module: Producing printed materials, by Anne Klaassens (contributor), Robin Rempel (contributor), Trudy K. Stewart (general editor, contributor), Leah B. Walter (contributor), Glenys Waters (contributor), Diane Wroge (contributor), and Adelle R. Walter (illustrator)
• In task module: Developing instructional materials, by Trudy K. Stewart, Leah B. Walter (contributor), and Trudi C. Hunt (contributor)
• In task module: Developing an instructional program, by Kenneth A. Boothe (contributor), Patricia M. Davis (contributor), Trudy K. Stewart (general editor), Leah B. Walter (contributor), Glenys Waters (contributor), and Adelle R. Walter (illustrator)
• In task module: Implementing a literacy program, by Carole P. Spaeth (compiler)
• In modular book: Implement a literacy program, by Carole P. Spaeth (compiler) and Leah B. Walter (compiler)
• In bookshelf: Literacy

This page is an extract from the LinguaLinks Library, Version 4.0, published on CD-ROM by SIL International, 1999. [Ordering information.]

Page content last modified: 22 October 1999

© 1999 SIL International