Editing And Revising

This engaging video explores the function and importance of the Oxford comma (also known as the serial comma) through humorous and memorable examples. Narrators David and Paige explain that while the comma placed before the conjunction in a list is optional in some style guides, its omission can lead to hilarious and confusing misunderstandings. They illustrate this with sentences implying one's parents are Mahatma Gandhi and a hamster, or that Elvis is a tiny Norwegian harpist. The video delves into the nuances of grammatical clarity versus stylistic choice, referencing major style guides like AP (which typically omits it) and Chicago (which includes it). It introduces the grammatical concept of "apposition" to explain why these specific misunderstandings occur. The narrators also offer a sophisticated counter-argument: that rewriting a sentence to change the word order is often a better solution for ambiguity than relying solely on punctuation. For educators, this video serves as an excellent hook for grammar lessons, demonstrating that punctuation is not just about following arbitrary rules but about ensuring clear communication. It provides a non-threatening entry point into complex topics like appositives, ambiguity, and style guides. The humorous examples stick in students' minds, making the concept of the serial comma easier to recall and apply in their own writing.

This engaging educational video teaches students how to elevate their writing using descriptive language. Set within a gamified narrative, the host and her robot companion arrive at 'Palette Plains,' a world that has lost its color and turned gray. To restore the vibrancy of the land and earn a 'Crystal Quill fragment,' the viewer must transform a dull, factual paragraph into a vivid, descriptive scene using adjectives, adverbs, and sensory details. The video breaks down the writing process into actionable strategies. It first reviews the roles of adjectives and adverbs before introducing two key techniques: 'Sensory Language' (appealing to the five senses) and 'Emotional Language' (establishing mood and feeling). Through clear examples—such as comparing a boring description of a beach to a vivid one—the narrator demonstrates how specific word choices help readers visualize a setting. The video also models close reading by analyzing a text to find descriptive elements. Ideally suited for upper elementary and middle school English Language Arts classrooms, this resource combines direct instruction with interactive practice. It includes specific pause points where students are prompted to complete tasks in a companion PDF (or on paper), such as matching definitions, analyzing a text, planning sensory details, and rewriting a paragraph. Teachers can use this video to introduce a descriptive writing unit, reinforce the concept of 'showing not telling,' or as a self-paced revision workshop.

This educational video provides a clear and engaging guide to understanding parallel structure in writing. Hosted by David, Rosie, and Paige, the lesson distinguishes parallel structure as a stylistic choice rather than a strict grammatical rule, emphasizing how it creates harmony and flow in sentences. Through handwritten visual examples on a blackboard, the instructors demonstrate how to align items in a list—whether they are nouns, verbs, or phrases—to ensure they match in form.

This engaging language arts video invites students into the "Whispering Hall" of Genre Land to master the mechanics of writing dialogue. Through a quest-based narrative featuring three knight statues, the host guides viewers through three distinct challenges: formatting, punctuation, and dialogue tags. The video contrasts confusing, unformatted blocks of text with properly structured dialogue to visually demonstrate the importance of these writing conventions. The content systematically breaks down the technical rules of dialogue writing. Key topics include when to start new paragraphs (paragraph breaks and indentation), how to use quotation marks and other punctuation within speech, capitalization rules for quoted sentences, and the proper use and placement of dialogue tags. It also distinguishes between valid tags (speaking verbs like "said" or "asked") and action beats (like "smiled" or "ran"), clarifying common grammatical errors. This video is an excellent resource for upper elementary and middle school writing workshops. It transforms dry grammar rules into a gamified editing mission, encouraging students to analyze text critically. Teachers can use the specific "bad vs. good" examples to model editing skills, while the clear breakdown of rules provides a solid foundation for narrative writing units. The step-by-step revision of a single story throughout the video offers a cohesive example of the writing process in action.

This engaging instructional video guides students through the critical final stage of pre-writing a novel: creating a comprehensive novel plan. Using a humorous narrative involving a writer and his dramatic alter ego, the video challenges students to gather their scattered ideas from previous lessons and organize them into a cohesive "Writer's Handbook." It emphasizes the importance of bridging the gap between dreaming of a story and actually writing it by having a solid roadmap. The core of the lesson focuses on two key revision strategies: consistency and clarity. Students learn how to evaluate their story elements—setting, character, conflict, and plot—to ensure they support one another logically (consistency) and are understandable to an outside audience (clarity). The video provides practical examples, such as reworking a setting that no longer fits the plot, and encourages peer feedback to identify confusing gaps in the narrative. Ideally suited for creative writing units in middle and high school, this video serves as a bridge between brainstorming and drafting. It models the revision process before drafting even begins, teaching students that planning is iterative. Teachers can use this video to launch a "Novel Planning Workshop" where students compile their work, critique each other's plans, and finalize their outlines before writing their opening chapters.

In this engaging grammar lesson, David and his teacher-cousin Beth break down the concept of sentence fragments using a simple, collaborative blackboard style. The video explains that a sentence fragment is an incomplete thought that mimics a sentence by ending with a period but fails to tell the "whole story." Through clear visual examples, the hosts demonstrate the two main causes of fragments: missing a subject (the "who") or missing a predicate (the "what happened"). The video explores three distinct types of fragments: those missing a predicate, those missing a subject, and phrases that lack both (like prepositional phrases standing alone). Using relatable examples like "The pancakes" and "Because of the snowstorm," David and Beth show exactly how to turn these fragments into complete sentences by combining subjects and predicates. The visual use of green and white handwriting on a black background helps distinguish between the naming part (subject) and the telling part (predicate). This resource is highly valuable for upper elementary and middle school language arts classrooms. It provides a non-intimidating entry point into sentence structure, helping students move beyond intuition to understanding the grammatical mechanics of why a sentence is complete. Teachers can use this video to introduce editing skills, support struggling writers who frequently use fragments, or reinforce the fundamental concepts of subject and predicate.

This video serves as a comprehensive guide to mastering the art of "deliberate details" in creative writing. Using a humorous opening metaphor of a cluttered room, the host demonstrates how including too many irrelevant details can overwhelm a reader, while choosing the right details brings a scene to life. The video contrasts examples of sparse, cluttered, and balanced writing to illustrate how sensory, contextual, and characterizing details improve narrative flow and immersion. Key themes include the distinction between relevant and irrelevant details, the use of figurative language for creativity, and the power of symbolic details to convey deeper meaning without explicit explanation. The lesson uses Ray Bradbury's *Fahrenheit 451* as a mentor text, analyzing how professional authors select specific details to establish mood, world-building, and character traits simultaneously. Ideally suited for English Language Arts and creative writing classes, this video provides actionable strategies for revision and drafting. It moves students beyond simple description ("showing not telling") to intentional writing where every word serves a purpose. Teachers can use the built-in pause points for analyzing mentor texts and the final guided practice to help students revise their own narrative drafts.

This engaging animated lesson uses a mystery narrative to teach students how to identify and analyze tone in written texts. Set in the fictional town of Persuasia, the video follows the investigation of a missing mascot, Wartimer the Warthog. Students learn that by analyzing the tone of a mysterious note left at the scene and comparing it to writing samples from three suspects, they can identify the culprit.

This engaging animated video introduces students to the concept of contractions in the English language, explaining how two words can be combined into one using an apostrophe. Through clear visual demonstrations, it defines what contractions are and shows how specific letters are removed and replaced by an apostrophe to shorten words without changing their meaning. The video systematically guides viewers through identifying contractions in reading and forming them in writing. It breaks down common examples like "didn't" (did not), "she's" (she is), "couldn't" (could not), "I'm" (I am), and "I'll" (I will). The content emphasizes looking for clues in the remaining letters to decode the original words, helping students understand the author's message. Ideal for elementary language arts instruction, this resource serves as both an introduction and a practice tool. It uses relatable scenarios—like pirates searching for treasure or writing a letter to a friend—to contextualize grammar. Teachers can use this video to model how to mechanically construct contractions and to facilitate discussions about why we use them in everyday speech and writing.

This video provides a clear and engaging explanation of how to properly use commas when writing dialogue. Using a helpful "runway" metaphor, the narrators demonstrate the mechanics of punctuating speech in two common scenarios: when the speaker tag comes before the quote, and when the speaker tag follows the quote. The video uses specific sentence examples involving characters Guillermo and Roxane to visually illustrate where commas, periods, and quotation marks belong. The content focuses on the specific grammatical rules of "reported speech" or dialogue tags. Key themes include the function of commas as separators between narration and speech, the correct placement of punctuation inside or outside quotation marks, and the exceptions for question marks and exclamation points. The visual metaphor of an airplane taking off and landing helps solidify the concept of ramping up to or winding down from spoken words. For educators, this video serves as an excellent tool for teaching writing mechanics and editing skills. It simplifies a rule that often confuses students—specifically the counter-intuitive requirement to use a comma instead of a period at the end of a spoken sentence when a dialogue tag follows. Teachers can use this resource to introduce dialogue punctuation in creative writing units, support students during the editing phase of the writing process, or as a remediation tool for students struggling with writing mechanics.

This engaging educational video introduces students to the art of screenwriting by contrasting it with playwriting. Framed as an internship assignment for a film festival, the video guides viewers through the process of saving a film production that has mistakenly used a stage play script instead of a proper screenplay. It defines key differences between the two formats, specifically focusing on the necessity of detailed action lines in film to guide the complex pre-production process.

This engaging video debunks the persistent grammar myth that ending a sentence with a preposition is incorrect. Through a blend of linguistic history and humor, the narrator explains that this rule is actually a stylistic preference rather than a grammatical necessity, tracing its origins back to 18th-century attempts to force English to behave like Latin. The video explores the history of the English language, highlighting the influence of Bishop Robert Lowth and the "Latinization" of English grammar rules. It uses clear examples to demonstrate how avoiding terminal prepositions often leads to awkward, unnatural phrasing, famously illustrated by a quote attributed to Winston Churchill regarding "up with which I will not put." For educators, this resource serves as an excellent tool for teaching the difference between grammar and style, the history of the English language, and the importance of natural syntax. It encourages students to think critically about language rules and empowers them to write with greater clarity and confidence, moving away from archaic prescriptions that don't fit the Germanic roots of English.