Week 12 · Revise, Edit and Press Day

Friday

Nova's Signal Review

// Make it clearer for the reader, make it correct, and print the final issue

⏱ about 20 min

Friday: Nova's Signal Review

Three revised pieces lie on the Signal Desk, each one marked up in two colors. Blue for revising. Green for editing.

Nova hovers above them, her light steady. "Review time," she says. "What did blue do, and what did green do?"

"Blue changed what it says," Rocket answers. "Added, removed, moved, reworded. Green fixed capitals and commas and apostrophes."

"And what do you notice about the order?" Raven asks.

"Blue first," Rocket says. "No point polishing a sentence I was going to cut."

Nova dims to a glow. "One more read tonight. Slowly, for mistakes only. That is proofreading."

Rocket groans, then picks up the green pencil anyway. Raven is already on the second page.

Review: revise, then edit, then proofread

Revising changes what a piece says and how it is arranged for its purpose and audience: add, remove, move, reword. Editing fixes conventions: capitals, commas, quotation marks, apostrophes, colons, spelling.

Proofreading is the last slow read, looking only for mistakes. Read aloud, read backward one sentence at a time, or read with a card covering the lines below.

One more convention for pauses. A comma marks a short pause in a sentence. Three dots, called an ellipsis, show a longer pause or words left out of a quotation. Use the ellipsis rarely.

Revise: purpose, audience, and the four moves.
Edit: capitals, commas, quotation marks, apostrophes, colons, spelling.
Proofread: one slow read for mistakes only.
Feedback: one compliment, one question, written down.

Read it: the letter from the Signal Desk

Read it

From the Signal Desk (the letter that opens the final issue of the fall)
Dear neighbors, this is the last issue of the fall, and it is the one we are proudest of.
Inside you will find three kinds of writing: a story, an explainer and an argument.
Every piece was revised twice and edited once, and then read aloud on the porch to anyone who would listen.
Raven's rule for the week was simple. "Revise first," she said. "Then edit. Then read it one more time."
Rocket's rule was simpler... "Write fast, fix later." He fixed a great deal.
Nova's rule was a question: who is this for, and what do they need?
We hope you find something in these pages that you want to read twice.
If you do, tell us. If you find a mistake, tell us that too, and we will fix it in the spring.

SIGNAL REVIEW

Read the question.
Tap your answer.

Which comes first: revising or editing?

Which of these is a revision move, not an editing fix?

In the letter, what mark introduces the list of three kinds of writing?

What do the three dots after "Rocket's rule was simpler" show?

Which word in the letter is the purpose question Nova asked all week?

PUT THE WRITING PROCESS IN ORDER

?Draft the piece fast.
?Revise for purpose and audience with the four moves.
?Get one compliment and one question from a reader.
?Edit for capitals, punctuation and spelling.
?Proofread once, slowly, for mistakes only.

WHY THIS EXERCISEEach step does a different job. Doing them in order keeps you from polishing a sentence you will cut.

Proof pass	True or false?
Proofreading looks for new ideas to add.	?
An ellipsis can show a pause or words left out.	?
Reading aloud helps you catch mistakes.	?
"Raven's rule" uses an apostrophe to show belonging.	?

WHY THIS EXERCISEThe last read is for mistakes only. Knowing what each mark does makes that read quick.

What is the slow, last read for mistakes only called? Type the one word.

WHY THIS EXERCISENaming the step helps you remember to do it, every time, before anything goes to print.

Try it

Proofread one of your three pieces by reading it aloud to someone at home, slowly.
Then read the last sentence first and work backward. Count the mistakes each method found.

Checklist

All three pieces have been revised for purpose and audience.
All three have been edited for capitals, commas, quotation marks, apostrophes, colons and spelling.
All three have been proofread once, slowly, for mistakes only.
My reader's question has been answered in each piece, or I decided not to and wrote why.

Signal notebook: proofread your story, your explainer and your argument. List every mistake you found, one per line.Write a short letter from your own desk to open your final issue. Name the three pieces and one thing you learned about revising.Write two sentences about which proofreading method found more mistakes for you, aloud or backward, and why you think so.Copy the one sentence from the letter from the Signal Desk that you think is best edited. Name every convention it follows.

Three pieces, proofread and ready. Tomorrow is Press Day, the last one of the fall.

Grown-up checked my answers

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