The Situation
Your students need to learn how to edit their work.
The Solution
Editing is a tricky a challenging skill to teach in the classroom. The reason why is because there are many things that you could discuss when it comes to editing. You can analyse writing, infinitely, with regard to spelling, sentence structure and word choice. You as the teacher need to dwindle that conversation down to a tool that is functional from the context of a student.
The acronym CUPS (Capital Letters, Usage, Punctuation, Spelling) is a helpful tool get the message across that editing is important. Observe the table below.
Presenting a placard with the above table printed allows students to have a quick point of reference for editing. Working through the checklist, students consider different aspects of their writing. They can read through it once focusing simply on the capital letters and again on usage and so forth. This avoids the age all statement of “Please edit your work”, which lacks structure and direction.
Alternatively you might have a partner review the students work – a great way to get students providing feedback to one another.
The English Classroom 
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