Congratulations Editor on choosing to help youth improve on their writing skills!
Good to Know articles are written by students and edited by college students who have already been through rigorous writing classes and are experienced at writing college-level papers. By participating in this you are "paying forward" your writing skills to students who are in much need of learning proper writing.
In this internship, you will receive 3 high school students who will be your student-writers. Daily, you will check their pages and correct any aspects/errors that you find to be wrong with their article summaries. Edits should focus on grammar, spelling, punctuation, sentence structure, paragraph structure, fluidity ( making it sound more like a news article than a paragraph for an English class), and content. Lastly, check to see if the student plagiarized any part of the article by using the sentences verbatim. Simply do this by copying the text in questions, then going back to the article and do a search for it on the browser's search function.
Grammar is pretty easy. The students must follow the rules of correct grammar and if you find errors in their grammar, you should point out which areas they need to improve on; eg, pronoun usage, possessive nouns, subject-object agreement, comparative adjectives, etc... Sentence structure should follow an active rather than a passive structure and follow the structure that conforms to proper English. Punctuation is something that is standard and should be pointed out to the student. paragraph structure should be as follows:
1. Headline
2. Topic sentence
3. Fact 1 sentence
4. Fact 2 sentence
5. Fact 3 sentence
6. Fact 4 sentence
7.Concluding sentence
8. Source: (The URL - the website that you got the news articles from. Like this: Source: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/long-sleeves-on-doctors-white-coats-may-spread-germs/ )
The fluidity of the article pertains to how it sounds. An example of a sentence that has poor fluidity would be:
In conclusion, the machine was very helpful to the building of a tunnel.
A sentence that shows better fluidity would be:
As can be seen by the usage of the tunnel boring machine (TBM), completion of the tunnel was efficient and expeditious.
or
Completion of the tunnel was efficient and expeditious with the usage of the tunnel boring machine (TBM).
Content must be paraphrased from the original article. No aspect of it must be plagiarized. If you as the editor notice a phrase or complete sentence that is beyond your writer's ability, highlight and copy that text from the student's writing, then do a search of the original text from the source given by the writer; eg,
https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/environment/a21527670/kilauea-hawaii-volcano-crystals-olivine-green/
Then write a note to the writer saying that he or she is not learning anything by plagiarizing articles and that they should rewrite the plagiarized text again.
Here is an example of a properly edited article:
Original:
It's Raining Crystals in Hawaii
Kilauea is the most active volcano in the island of Hawaii. On May 3, Kilauea began to erupt again and residents have been dealing with all the things that have been coming out of the volcano. One of those things includes green crystals, also known as olivine crystals. These crystals are very common, but it's unusual to find them as a result of a volcanic eruption. Geologists claim that during the volcanic eruption, the green crystals are carried out with the lava into the sky. Some of the lava cools instantly in the air, forming pumice. This sudden change traps gasses in the pumice which force themselves out, creating holes. These holes are where the olivine crystals come out from, making it seem as if it's raining crystals. The volcano Kilauea has impacted Hawaii greatly, but the residents of Hawaii are hoping to take a break from all the eruptions. https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/environment/a21527670/kilauea-hawaii-volcano-crystals-olivine-green/
Corrections
It's Raining Crystals in Hawaii
- I removed It's because you should write more to the point. "It's" takes away from the title.
- Kilauea is the most active volcano in the island of Hawaii. ***
Combine these two sentence to keep to the 6 sentence paragraph structure.
- On May 3, Kilauea began to erupt again and residents have been dealing with all the things that have been coming out of the volcano. ***
- Instead of using "things" which is ambiguous, use "volcanic material" which is a more inclusive term of all the ash, rock, gas, magma, etc... that come out of a volcano.
Combined sentences: On May 3, Kilauea, the most active volcano in the island of Hawaii, began to erupt again and residents have been dealing with all the things that have been coming out of the volcano.
One of those things includes green crystals, also known as olivine crystals.
- Again, watch out for the "things". Rewrite the sentence as such: Among the volcanic material spewing out of this volcano are green crystals, also known as olivine crystals.
- These crystals are very common, but it's unusual to find them as a result of a volcanic eruption. ****
Combine these two sentence to keep to the 6 sentence paragraph structure.
- Geologists claim that during the volcanic eruption, the green crystals are carried out with the lava into the sky. ****
- Combined sentences: Geologists claim that during the volcanic eruption, the green crystals, which are common, but unusual as a result of a volcanic eruption, are carried out with the lava into the sky.
Some of the lava cools instantly in the air, forming pumice.
This sudden change traps gasses in the pumice which force themselves out, creating holes. ****
- "Force" is the verb being acted by the "pumice". Pumice is a collective/singular noun. When we use singular nouns, the verbs must have an "s" at the end as in this sentence "The gas sprays out of the hose." Also, "Pumice" is not multiple things, so we cannot use "themselves". We must use itself.
*** Combine the above and below sentences.
These holes are where the olivine crystals come out from, making it seem as if it's raining crystals. ****
- Combined sentences: This sudden change traps gasses in the pumice which forces itself out creating holes which are where the olivine crystals come out from, making it seem as if it's raining crystals.
The volcano Kilauea has impacted Hawaii greatly, but the residents of Hawaii are hoping to take a break from all the eruptions.
Fully Edited Version:
Raining Crystals in Hawaii
On May 3, Kilauea, the most active volcano in the island of Hawaii, began to erupt again and residents have been dealing with all the things that have been coming out of the volcano. Among the volcanic material spewing out of this volcano are green crystals, also known as olivine crystals. Geologists claim that during the volcanic eruption, the green crystals are carried out with the lava into the sky. Some of the lava cools instantly in the air, forming pumice. This sudden temperature change traps gasses in the pumice which forces itself out creating holes which are where the olivine crystals come out from, making it seem as if it's raining crystals. The volcano Kilauea has impacted Hawaii greatly, but the residents of Hawaii are hoping to take a break from all the eruptions.
https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/environment/a21527670/kilauea-hawaii-volcano-crystals-olivine-green/
View the students' article summary tutorial page for more information on how they must write their article summaries here:
http://theworldforfreedom.com/Article_Tutorial
