Seventh Grade · Writing · week 6

Revising for Reasoning, Not Just Wording

Revise the draft at the paragraph level, strengthening weak reasoning, explaining unclear evidence, and fixing organization problems.

Revising is different from editing. Editing fixes small errors like spelling and commas; revising asks bigger questions -- does every paragraph do its job? Is any evidence dropped in without being explained? Is anything out of order or repeated? This week is a revising pass, focused on the STRENGTH of the argument rather than small mechanics.

Use a simple check on each body paragraph: does it have one clear reason, is the evidence specific and explained rather than just quoted and abandoned, and does it clearly connect back to the claim? Any paragraph that fails one of these checks is exactly what needs revising.

📋 For the teacher
Teach it (10–15 min):
  • Read the draft together out loud, pausing after each paragraph to ask what that paragraph's one job is -- if there is no clear answer, it needs work.
  • Resist fixing commas or spelling this week even if you spot them -- flag them for next week's edit pass so revising stays focused on reasoning.
  • Try highlighting in three colors: the reason, the evidence, and the sentence connecting them -- a missing color shows a gap in the paragraph.
  • Model cutting something you like but that does not truly serve the argument, to show that revision sometimes means removing, not just adding.
Talk about it:
  • Which paragraph needed the biggest change, and why?
  • Did you find evidence that was dropped in without being explained? What did you add?
  • What is the difference between revising and editing?

Mastery looks like: They revise their draft at the paragraph level, strengthening weak or unexplained evidence and fixing organization problems, without yet worrying about small mechanical errors.

Common stumbles: Only fixing spelling or punctuation and calling it "revised"; leaving evidence unexplained instead of connecting it clearly back to the claim.

See it visually

Interactive, spoken-aloud tools that show this idea in motion.

Paragraph BuilderStack a paragraph: topic sentence, details, closing.try →
Homework for this lessonType it, write it with a stylus, or print it for pencil & paper.open →
Records attendance + 15 min of Writing for this learner.
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