Editing Editing (section)

== Self-Editing ==
Self-editing is the process of evaluating one's own writing and fixing errors, whether they be grammatical or difficult to understand. This does not require any specialized knowledge and simply aims to improve the overall quality of a literature work. It is an essential part of the editing process, benefiting both language learners and those writing in their native language.

Students often find learning about editing rewarding in both learning a language<ref>Ferris, Dana R; Hsiang Liu; Aparna Sinha; Manuel Senna. (2013). Written corrective feedback for individual L2 writers. ''Journal of Second Language Writing 22.3'', 307–329. <nowiki>https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jslw.2012.09.009</nowiki></ref> and improving language skills. However, the writing field currently debates whether self-editing is the best way to reduce errors in student writing. Some studies have shown that self-editing is more effective at reducing language errors in the short term than peer-editing.<ref name=":0">Diab, N. M. (2016). A comparison of peer, teacher and self-feedback on the reduction of language errors in student essays. ''System'', ''57'', 55–65.</ref> However, in the long term, both approaches have similar effects on students.<ref name=":0" /> Others have found that the collaborative dialogue provided by peer-editing may cause it to be much better at reducing language errors than self-editing.<ref name=":6" />

Today, self-editing is being taught in numerous ways. Some researchers have found a significant improvement in student essays through self-editing worksheets.<ref>Holbrook, G., & Park, V. J. (2017). Student perceptions of the effectiveness of self-editing on their writing: towards a self-regulated approach. ''Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education'', ''12''. <nowiki>https://doi.org/10.47408/jldhe.v0i12.425</nowiki></ref> Others have experimented with mobile apps. Similar to the worksheets, these mobile based editing exercises have been shown to reduce error specifically in English learners' papers.<ref>Li, Z. and Hegelheimer, V. (2013) 'Mobile-assisted grammar exercises: effects on self-editing in L2 writing', ''Language Learning & Technology'', 17(3), pp.135-156.</ref> Just as applications like [[Google Docs]] and [[Grammarly]] can highlight grammatical errors, these applications may teach students to identify these mistakes, among others, by themselves.

While there hasn't yet been a definitive answer on the best editing techniques to improve language errors, numerous studies have shown that learning to edit helps in both learning a language and improving native language skills.