THE WRITING PROCESS

The three stages of the writing process can be described as:

a)      Prewriting

b)      Writing and drafting

c)      Rewriting (revising, proofreading and editing)

Prewriting

Before students start a writing task, it is important to define the basic elements of any piece of writing:

In real life every piece of writing is influenced by who it is written for (audience) and why it is being written (purpose). We should no longer be telling students to ‘Write a composition about your holiday’, the instruction should be something like: ‘Write a postcard to a friend about how you are spending your holiday’.

a)      helps to stimulate student interest

b)      develops concepts and ideas

c)      gives students confidence

d)      teaches the concept of writing for a defined audience

Some prewriting activities:

1.      brainstorming

2.      mapping

3.      listing

4.      outlining

       Writing 

Students should write the first draft freely and without frustration as soon after the prewriting phase as possible without worrying about spelling and punctuation.

 Tell the students to write the draft:

 a)      immediately after the prewriting stage

b) using brainstorming techiques or an outline as suggested

b)      don’t worry about mistakes at this stage

     Rewriting:

This stage gives the student the opportunity to:

 a)      improve the content

b)      improve the organisation

c)      improve the sentence structure

d)      make vocabulary more exact

e)      reduce sentences for clarity

Encourage your student to eliminate or reduce spelling, grammar and punctuation mistakes at this stage.

a)      teachers should make concrete suggestions for improvement in an encouraging way

b)      have students share their writing with a partner or small group

c)      use a writing improvement checklist such as the one below and later in the form produced in the Centres Handbook (for teacher feedback)

d)      Use something like the self and peer checklist below

When setting a writing task for your students, consider the following areas in your planning:

1.  What type of text do you want students to produce?

2.  Who will the text be aimed at and consequently, what sort of language style will be  appropriate?  Will it be tentative, friendly, polite, annoyed etc.?

3.  How are the students going to get ideas?

4.  How is a text like this organised and what sort of language is used?  Analyse a similar text.

5.         How can I train my students to take responsibility for correcting and editing their own work?

Possible stages of a writing programme:

1.  Familiarisation:

2.  Guided writing:

3.  Free writing: