Year 6 - Mr Mussell Homework

Lesson four: proof-reading and editing

Today, we are going to proof-read and edit our first draft.
To do this, we first need to read every sentence carefully; don't read what you want it to say, read what you have actually written. Think about the following:

Check the basics: grammar, punctuation, spellings, capital letters.

• Have you started each sentence and proper noun with a capital letter?
• If you pause, do you need a full-stop (a new point starts afterwards) or a comma (the same point continues)?
• Have you forgotten any words?
• If you’re not sure of the spelling of a word, look it up.

Check your structure.

• Have you included paragraphs?
• Are you writing in the same tense throughout?
• What voice are you writing in: first person (someone telling their story – I, we), second person (speaking to someone – you) or third person (a narrator – they)?

Can you add more details?

• Use a thesaurus to improve your language (synonyms).
• Think about your sentence starters (adverbials).
• Extend your story; add in extra details (clauses, noun phrases).

Finally, think about the overall article. Do your ideas make sense?