Editing Student Writing in Microsoft Word 2000

Microsoft Word offers two features which can be very helpful while editing and commenting on student writing. Both of these features require using the Reviewing Toolbar. To enable this toolbar go to your View menu and select Toolbars – Reviewing.

Inserting Comments

The first feature is Inserting Comments. This allows you to insert comments to specific areas within the student's writing without making any changes to their document. The student can then read your comments and do their own editing and revising. To insert comments place your cursor in the document where you would like the comment attached. Then click on the first button on the Reviewing toolbar, Insert Comment.

This will open a number the comment and record it in a separate comment pane (as shown below). Word then inserts a comment reference mark in the document. You may want to use the highlighter pen button to highlight the text you are commenting on. Use the comment pane to edit and review all the comments in the document.

The first five buttons on the reviewing toolbar are used with the Comment feature. The first button inserts a comment. The second button opens the comment pane for editing comments. The third and fourth buttons will move through the document to previous and next comments. The fifth button is used to delete comments.

Change Tracking

The second feature, Change Tracking, allows you to actually make changes to the students paper which are then underlined and colored red. Students can then review the changes you’ve made and either accept, reject, or revise.

The second five buttons on the reviewing toolbar are for use with the Change Tracking feature. The first button "turns on" the feature so that you can type your changes in the document and they will be red and underlined. The second and third buttons allow you to move throughout the document from one change to another. The fourth button allows the student to accept the change made to their document. When the change is accepted red and underlined text is changed to regular text. The fifth button allows the student to reject the change, which removes it from their document.

You can also choose to show or hide tracked changes on the screen or in the printed document by using the Highlight Changes dialog box (Tools menu, Track Changes submenu, Highlight Changes command).

Ask your technology resource teacher for help in using these word processing tools in your classroom.

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