To help develop accuracy, we correct student errors, offer constructive criticism and suggestions, and provide remedial exercises when necessary. Quantity will get students more comfortable in using the language, but quality is an important issue as well. Besides providing students with opportunities to develop both fluency and accuracy in the written language, self-correction and rewriting helps wean students from dependency on the teacher for correction. Putting more of the responsibility on students for correction develops a sense of self-sufficiency. It boosts their confidence, particularly when they compare their rewrites to the originals and can clearly see the improvement they have made.
Students become more active participants in their own learning and in helping classmates to learn.
It has been my experience that students will first consult one another when they have a question about their compositions before turning to the teacher for help. Self-correction and rewriting helps the teacher to individualize instruction. If all the students in a class have written a composition on the same topic, it may happen that some of them have made similar errors in word choice or verb tense, for example. Immediately after returning the students papers to rewrite, the teacher can call their attention to these errors and provide examples and explanations for the entire class. Although the benefits of this technique far outweigh the drawbacks, there are a few disadvantages.