STAAR Revising and Editing
Helpful Tips
As a reminder, revising and editing are two different things:
Revising  adding, changing, deleting parts of the piece to help the writing flow; turning
overused words into vivid words; adjusting and adding effective transitions; adding specific
details, descriptions, details; organizing ideas
Editing  indenting paragraphs; fixing spelling errors; adding, deleting, or changing
punctuation; fixing capitalization; adjusting for consistent verb tense, POV, subject-verb
agreement, etc.
Helpful hints on tackling revising and editing:
1) Look at the questions first! Highlight what you’re being asked to do in the question and
go to the referenced line and highlight it in the text.
2) Make a note in the margin about what the question is asking you to do, so that when you
read it, you can anticipate the answer.
3) Once you’ve “marked up” the text, read it through and note your anticipated answers.
4) Go to the questions and answer them. You most likely already know the right answer!
5) Use that dictionary and a highlighter. Both are provided to you in your testing room.
They should be your best friends on this test!!
If you are stuck on a question:
 Cross out answers you know are not correct.
 Plug in all possible options, and reread the sentence with that change. Does it
sound/look right? Trust your gut instinct! Your ear is often right.
 Very rarely will there be “no change” to the question. If you aren’t sure about the
answer, choose A - C if there is a “no change” D option.
 Make your best choice, and move on! Always make a guess, though. Don’t leave any
questions blank.
 Unless you are 100% sure you made a mistake, don’t go back and change any answers.
Revising Tips:
Make sure the answer you choose DOES:
 make the idea of a sentence clearer.
 eliminate choppiness.
 create the literary effect that the question is asking for.
 reflect the purpose of the paragraph and essay as a whole
Make sure the answer you choose DOES NOT:
× delete important information.
× create a sentence too similar to the original sentence or another sentence right
before or after it.
× reduce variety in word choice.
× place events out of sequence.
× contain fragments or run-ons.
Editing Tips:
The following skills are commonly tested on STAAR:
 Comma usage (before quotes, after an introductory dependent clause,
before a FANBOYS conjunction to create a compound sentence, etc.)
 Subject/verb agreement (He was … versus they were …)
 Spelling (use that dictionary!)
 Capitalization (look over the rules to proper nouns!)
 The use of quotation marks
 Use of apostrophes (‘s = shows ownership; this doesn’t make something
plural! If a word is already plural, put the apostrophe after the s. Example:
The Smiths’ house is a popular hangout on weekends!)
 Punctuating titles (rule of thumb: little things in quotes, big things in
italics- Example: I love the song “All You Need is Love” on the Beatles’
album, Magical Mystery Tour! )
 Correcting run-on sentences, as well as fragments (All sentences need to
have a subject and a verb. You also can’t “glue” two sentences together with
a comma! You have to have a FANBOYS conjunction to combine sentences.)
 Pronoun usage (He/She/I = subject – doing the action versus Him/Her/Me
= direct object – receiving the action. Example: She threw the ball to him.)