EMPLOYING TRACK CHANGES IN WRITING INSTRUCTION TO FACILITATE EFFECTIVE REVIEW AND REVISION BY STUDENTS

Abstract

The 2018 National Curriculum Program for Literature defines the purpose of teaching writing as “developing thinking and teaching how to write.” One of the writing skill requirements set by the Program at each grade level is “to write text according to the correct process.” This process consists of four steps: (1) Preparing to write, (2) Generating ideas and creating an outline, (3) Writing the draft, and (4) Reviewing and revising. However, in practical teaching, the step of Reviewing and Revising is often overlooked by both teachers and students, even though it is a crucial part of the writing process. To address this issue, we utilized the Track Changes feature (in Microsoft Word) to guide students in writing, aiming to help them effectively perform the review and revision of their drafts in both linguistic and non-linguistic aspects. An experimental study conducted in class 11AX at FPT High School (Can Tho) demonstrated the effectiveness of using Track Changes. Specifically, after each review and revision session, the quality of students’ writing improved, and they gained additional writing experience. Furthermore, through this process, teachers were able to assess the positive changes in students' development of writing skills.

Keywords: Writing skills, teaching writing, Track Changes, Review and Revision