--- title: Editing and redrafting — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Editing and redrafting», a lesson of the english course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: A first draft is like the first go at building a Lego model from your head: it stands up, but some bricks are in odd places, and editing is the sec --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/43-editing-and-redrafting/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [English](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/) / Editing and redrafting # Editing and redrafting Lesson 43 of the english course of Mova's primary school: 15 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/english/43-editing-and-redrafting/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/43-editing-and-redrafting/0/) — A first draft is like the first go at building a Lego model from your head: it stands up, but some bricks are in odd places, and editing is the second look that makes it sturdy and smart. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/43-editing-and-redrafting/1/) — Editing means improving the writing (a stronger word, a clearer order, a missing sentence), while proofreading means hunting the small slips: spelling, punctuation and the tense that wandered from "went" to "go". - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/43-editing-and-redrafting/2/) — The best trick is to read your work aloud, even in a whisper: your ear trips over the gap where "the" is missing long before your eyes notice it. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/43-editing-and-redrafting/3/) — Spellcheck and autocorrect are helpers, not editors: "The dog bark at the mail man" passes, because every word is a real word, yet "bark" should be "barked" and the reader still stumbles. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/43-editing-and-redrafting/4/) — Upgrading words is good until it isn't: "He ambulated to the edifice" for "He walked to the building" sounds like a robot swallowed a dictionary; the goal is the right word, not the longest one. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/43-editing-and-redrafting/5/) — A draft is a version of your writing that you plan to improve. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/43-editing-and-redrafting/7/) — Reading your work aloud helps you hear missing words, clumsy sentences and tense slips. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/43-editing-and-redrafting/8/) — Many schools use a special pen colour, often purple or green, for edits, so the teacher can see the improvements. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/43-editing-and-redrafting/9/) — Crossing out and rewriting are a normal part of writing, not a sign of failure. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/43-editing-and-redrafting/10/) — Professional authors usually rewrite their work many times before it is published. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/43-editing-and-redrafting/11/) — Spellcheck cannot catch real words in the wrong place, such as "there" for "their" or "bark" for "barked". - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/43-editing-and-redrafting/12/) — A thesaurus gives words with similar meanings, but not every synonym fits the sentence or the reader. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/43-editing-and-redrafting/13/) — Peer feedback means a classmate reads your work and suggests improvements; useful feedback is kind, specific and helpful. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/43-editing-and-redrafting/14/) — By the end of primary school, pupils are expected to edit their own work without being told each mistake. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/43-editing-and-redrafting/15/) — In Manchester "boss" means great and "nowt" means nothing; in Newcastle "pet" is a friendly word like "love". - ← previous: [Building tension and suspense](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/42-building-tension-and-suspense/) - next →: [Writing to inform, instruct and persuade](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/44-writing-to-inform-instruct-and-persuade/) - ↑ back to [English](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/)