Minishare: Hi-Tech Writing Tip

Jason Byrne,

<jbyrne@oopsenglish.com>

Here is a tip in using Microsoft Word to improve student writing. Most Japanese students are likely to own or have access to a personal computer, printer, and a copy of Word. On newer versions of Word, written collaboration and peer correction becomes available.

Ask students to choose the option Tools menu > Track Changes menu > Highlight Changes from the menu. They can now use highlighted text to add in comments and when attempting to delete original text, they will find it does not disappear, but is crossed out instead. Once highlight changes is activated, these two processes happen automatically. To switch off this Word function, un-tick the boxes in the highlight changes window.

When one student sends work to another, the second student can send an edited and commented version back to the authoring student for further review.