Revising and editing on the Grade 10 ELA MCAS: complete overview - Massachusetts

Revising and editing is one of the core skills tested on the Grade 10 ELA MCAS, and it is the most directly connected to writing well. The test presents drafts and asks you to improve them, both at the level of ideas and structure (revising) and at the level of grammar and mechanics (editing). This site breaks the skill into five dot points. This overview maps the five skills, how they connect, and how to study them.

The five revising and editing skills

Each skill improves a draft, on the test and in your own writing.

• Revising for clarity and development. Improving ideas, focus, and organization: adding, deleting, sharpening, reordering. See revising for clarity and development.
• Editing for grammar and usage. Correcting agreement, tense, confused words, capitalization, and spelling. See editing for grammar and usage.
• Sentence boundaries and combining. Fixing fragments, comma splices, and run-ons, and combining choppy sentences. See sentence boundaries and combining.
• Word choice and precision. Replacing vague words, cutting wordiness, and matching diction to tone. See word choice and precision.
• Revising and editing item types. The multiple-choice, multiple-select, hot-text, and drag-and-drop formats, and how to approach each. See revising and editing item types.

The thread through every skill: improving the writing, on the test and your essay

Two ideas tie the module together. The first is the revising-editing distinction: revising improves content and structure (ideas, focus, development, organization), while editing fixes mechanics (grammar, usage, punctuation, spelling). Knowing which an item wants is half the battle. The second is the connection to the long composition: editing skills earn the Standard English Conventions trait, and revising skills support the larger Idea Development trait, so practicing here improves both traits of your own essay. Sentence boundaries and combining sit across both, fixing errors (editing) and improving flow (revising). And the item-types skill ties the rest to the computer-based formats you will actually face.

How the skills are tested

• Multiple choice and multiple-select: choose the best revision, the correct edit, or all the changes that apply.
• Hot text: click the off-topic sentence, the error, or the misspelled word directly in the draft.
• Drag-and-drop: reorder sentences or paragraphs into a logical sequence.

How to study revising and editing

1. Learn the revising-editing line, so you know whether an item wants a content fix or a mechanics fix.
2. Drill the revising moves (add, delete, sharpen, reorder) and the editing targets (agreement, tense, confused words).
3. Master sentence boundaries, fixing fragments, splices, and run-ons, and combine choppy sentences correctly.
4. Choose precise, formal words, replacing vagueness and slang and cutting wordiness.
5. Practice the computer-based item types on released materials, reading the surrounding draft for context, and proofread your own essay the same way.

For the official exam materials

DESE publishes released test questions and computer-based practice tests, and the Massachusetts Curriculum Framework for English Language Arts and Literacy sets the standards. See the MCAS released test questions and practice tests page and the MCAS home page. Always study from the current released materials, because the item types and standards are set by DESE.