Teaching Tips
The Stack the Deck Writing Program P.O. Box 5253 Chicago, IL 60680 Phone: 1-312-675-1000 and 1-800-253-5737 Fax: 1-312-765-0453 Email: stackthedeck@sbcglobal.net
Help a teacher do a job, and you win a friendis the rubric upon which The Stack the Deck Writing Program has been based. One of our goals with our web site is to provide writing teachers with practical strategies to make your job easier. Periodically, we intend to include teaching tips on this web link. Please share them with your colleagues.

Revision Strategy with a Word Processor (Based on SOS Sheet) Based on Sentence Opening Sheet from Stack the Deck Writing Program, Tinley Park, IL < http://www.stackthedeck.com > Prepared by Heidi Erstad, CESA #1 < http://www.cesa1.k12.wi.us > What you'll start with… Jessica rode her bike on the empty streets. The clock in the church struck eleven o'clock. Jessica turned down Western Avenue. Racing as fast as she could. Jessica coasted to a quiet stop in front of the house. No lights shone in the house. Jessica opened the front door slowly and shut it without a sound. What you'll end up with... What you can do once it's printed…. Look at sentence lengths (Variety? Run-ons? Combinations needed?) Look at beginnings of sentences Highlight verbs. (Repetition? Mixed tenses? Passive voice?) Highlight words used more than once. Highlight descriptive words and phrases Highlight emotional words, vocabulary words related to content What are the step-by-step instructions for work done in Microsoft Word? Click here to download a printer-friendly pdf version or print out this page. Note: These directions will work, with minor adjustments, for most word processing programs regardless of platform.   Step 1: Open your Microsoft Word document   Step 2: Save your writing!   Step 3: Go to the Edit menu and choose Replace.       Step 4: Have the computer find all of the periods in your writing and replace them with a period and a paragraph return. NOTE: ^p is the symbol for paragraph. Hold down shift & 6 to make a ^     Step 5: Click Replace All.   Step 6: Repeat Steps 4 & 5 for any question marks (?) or exclamation marks (!) you have in your writing. [ Be sure to use a ? or ! instead of the period. ]     Step 7: Close the Find and Replace window.   Step 8: Go to the Edit menu and choose Select All     Step 9: From the Table menu, choose Insert Table     Step 10: Highlight any blank rows or rows you don't want to include.   Delete the blank rows you don't want.     Step 11: Go to the Edit menu and choose Select All     Step 12: Click on the numbering button on the toolbar to number your sentences.       Step 13: Hold down the CTRL key and press 2 on your keyboard to double space your writing     Step 14: Print out your writing     Step 15: Close your writing... ...but DO NOT SAVE IT!

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