Individually editing a text is necessary when there are no possibilities of a collective discussion of the text with other students (e. g. when dealing with homework writing assignments). Whenever possible, the student should receive external feedback (from parents, siblings, teacher, etc.), however.
In order for students to edit their own texts when working alone, it is important to provide them with clear guidelines and a list of helpful questions and suggestions, such as:
- Could I reformulate the title of my text to make it more interesting and exciting, or to provide a clearer indication of the content?
- Does my text have a clear structure (introduction/overview, main body, ending/summary); is the progression logical? Have I kept to the topic?
- Does the text begin with an interesting and informative sentence which captures the reader‘s interest, or could it be improved?
- Have I chosen clear and concise words without repeating them too often?
- Are there grammar forms (tenses, verb forms) that I am not sure of, and whom can I ask for advice? (Mark these passages and ask the instructor for help).
- Is my text free of spelling mistakes, did I clear up uncertainties with the help of dictionaries? (Students should have access to dictionaries, etc., and know how to use them, of course. This includes techniques for looking up words as well as awareness of the order of letters in the heritage language as opposed to the alphabet of the school language, etc.)