How do the multiple-choice and technology-enhanced revising and editing items on the EOC Writing test work, and how do you approach each format?
Revising and editing item types: understanding how the EOC Writing test presents a student draft and tests it with multiple-choice and technology-enhanced items (drop-down corrections, hot-text selection, drag-and-drop ordering, fill-in-the-blank), telling revising items (content and flow) apart from editing items (conventions), and approaching each format, on the Virginia EOC Writing test.
How the EOC Writing test's multiple-choice and technology-enhanced items work: drop-down, hot-text, drag-and-drop, and fill-in-the-blank items on a student draft, the difference between revising (content, flow) and editing (conventions), and how to approach each format. Tested across the Writing MC and TEI section.
Reviewed by: AI editorial process; not yet individually human-reviewed
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What this skill is asking
The first part of the Virginia EOC Writing test is a section of multiple-choice and technology-enhanced items that work from a student draft. To do well, you need to understand the two kinds of item, revising (content and flow) and editing (conventions), and how to approach each technology-enhanced format: drop-down corrections, hot-text selection, drag-and-drop ordering, and fill-in-the-blank. The skill is partly knowing the format and partly knowing what each item is really testing, so the online delivery never gets in the way. This page covers the revising-editing distinction and the main TEI formats on the Writing test. It complements the actual revising and editing skills, which the other dot points in this and the editing module teach.
Revising versus editing
The two kinds of item ask for different things.
The fastest way to approach an item is to classify it first. If it asks which sentence to add, delete, or move, or which transition fits, it is a revising item, so apply the unity, coherence, and development skills. If it asks which version is correct, or offers a menu of word forms or punctuation, it is an editing item, so apply the grammar and mechanics rules. Misreading the kind of item leads you to look for the wrong thing.
The technology-enhanced formats
The practical advice is to not be thrown by the interface. A drop-down offering homophones is an editing question about usage and spelling; a hot-text "click the sentence that does not belong" is a revising question about unity; a drag-and-drop of paragraphs is a revising question about organization. Practicing the formats with released VDOE items removes the novelty so that on test day you spend your attention on the writing, not the mechanics of the tool.
Approaching any item
Try this
Q1. What is the difference between a revising item and an editing item on the EOC Writing test? [Recall]
- Cue. Revising items improve content and flow (focus, development, organization, coherence, transitions); editing items fix conventions (grammar, usage, punctuation, capitalization, spelling). Revising asks if the writing is effective; editing asks if it is correct.
Q2. A hot-text item asks you to "click the sentence that does not belong in the paragraph". What skill is being tested, and what do you do? [Short explanation]
- Cue. It tests unity (a revising skill). Find the paragraph's focus, then click the sentence that strays from it, the off-topic sentence. The hot-text format is just the way you mark your answer; the underlying task is removing what breaks unity.
Exam-style practice questions
Practice questions written in the style of VDOE exam questions on this dot point, with worked answer explainers. The year tag is the paper they imitate, not the source.
EOC Writing (item type, style)1 marksOn the EOC Writing test, what is the difference between a revising item and an editing item? (1) There is no difference. (2) Revising items improve content and flow (focus, development, organization, transitions); editing items fix conventions (grammar, usage, punctuation, spelling). (3) Revising items only fix spelling. (4) Editing items reorder paragraphs.Show worked answer →
Answer: (2). The Writing test's selected-response section has two kinds of item. Revising items target the higher-order qualities, focus, development, organization, coherence, and transitions. Editing items target the conventions, grammar, usage, punctuation, capitalization, and spelling.
Why not the others: (1) the two have distinct purposes; (3) spelling is an editing concern, not the whole of revising; (4) reordering paragraphs is a revising (organization) task, not editing. Knowing which kind of item you face tells you what to look for.
EOC Writing (TEI, style)1 marksA drop-down item shows a sentence with a menu offering 'their / there / they're'. What kind of skill is this item testing, and how do you choose? (1) Organization; pick the first option. (2) An editing convention (usage/spelling of homophones); choose the form that fits the sentence's meaning. (3) Development; choose the longest option. (4) Tone; pick randomly.Show worked answer →
Answer: (2). A drop-down offering "their / there / they're" tests an editing convention, the correct homophone. Choose by meaning: "their" shows possession, "there" a place, "they're" means "they are".
Why not the others: (1), (3), and (4) misread the item. A drop-down embeds the choices in the sentence; read the sentence and select the form that is correct in context. The format is just a delivery method for a convention question.
Related dot points
- Planning and organizing a composition: establishing a clear focus or thesis, generating and grouping ideas, ordering them into a logical structure with an introduction, body, and conclusion, and recognizing the most effective plan, opening, or arrangement of paragraphs in a draft, on the Virginia EOC Writing test.
How to plan and organize writing on the Virginia EOC Writing test: setting a clear focus, grouping and ordering ideas with an introduction, body, and conclusion, and recognizing the best plan or arrangement in a draft. Tested with multiple-choice and technology-enhanced revising items.
- Developing and elaborating ideas: supporting a point with specific details, examples, facts, and reasons, elaborating by explaining how the support proves the point, choosing the sentence that best develops a paragraph, and recognizing where a draft is thin or underdeveloped, on the Virginia EOC Writing test.
How to develop ideas on the Virginia EOC Writing test: supporting a point with specific detail, examples, and reasons, elaborating by explaining the support, choosing the best developing sentence, and spotting thin paragraphs. Tested with multiple-choice and technology-enhanced revising items.
- Revising for unity, coherence, and transitions: removing sentences that stray from the focus (unity), ordering and connecting ideas so they flow logically (coherence), and choosing the transition word or phrase that signals the right relationship between ideas, on the Virginia EOC Writing test.
How to revise for unity and coherence on the Virginia EOC Writing test: removing off-topic sentences, ordering and linking ideas so they flow, and choosing the right transition. Tested with multiple-choice and technology-enhanced revising items including which sentence to delete.
- Subject-verb and pronoun-antecedent agreement: matching a verb to the number of its true subject (despite intervening phrases or tricky subjects like collective nouns and indefinite pronouns), and matching a pronoun to the number of its antecedent, on the Virginia EOC Writing test's editing items and the Short Paper's Usage and Mechanics domain.
How to fix agreement errors on the Virginia EOC Writing test: matching a verb to its true subject despite intervening phrases, handling collective nouns and indefinite pronouns, and matching a pronoun to its antecedent. Tested with multiple-choice and drop-down editing items, and scored on the Short Paper.
- Sentence boundaries, fragments, and run-ons: identifying a complete sentence (a subject and a verb expressing a complete thought), recognizing sentence fragments, run-on sentences, and comma splices, and fixing each with correct punctuation, a conjunction, or restructuring, on the Virginia EOC Writing test.
How to fix sentence-boundary errors on the Virginia EOC Writing test: telling a complete sentence from a fragment, recognizing run-ons and comma splices, and fixing each with a period, semicolon, conjunction, or restructuring. Tested with multiple-choice and editing items, and scored on the Short Paper.
Sources & how we know this
- SOL Practice Items (All Subjects) — VDOE (2025)
- 2017 English Standards of Learning — VDOE (2017)