Revise a story by choosing what needs to change

Adding adjectives is not the only way to revise. Identify a reader problem or intended effect first, then decide whether the draft needs a clearer connection, a different order or a more purposeful detail.

Choose one unclear or unnecessary detail. Make a specific change. Ask a reader what became clearer.

Give the revision a job

Replacing an unexplained 'they' with a character's name can remove uncertainty without adding a paragraph.

Choose a revision purpose before editing. Adding words is useful only when they improve meaning, organisation or the intended effect.

Revision is more than making handwriting neater. What difference did the change make for a reader?

Dictate the revised line or draw a replacement panel.

Resources

• Six-Panel Comic Challenge — Use the panels when a visual story sequence supports the task.

Further reading

• Literacy Hub — Teaching reading professional learning

Read next

• Multilingual storytelling with room for the storyteller's choices
• A setting that changes what can happen
• Compound words: do the parts form a meaningful whole?

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