Documentary Cards

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Teaching Writing

Introduction

Writing is often the most challenging skill for L2 learners due to its complexity in generating, organizing, and translating ideas into readable text.

Challenges include both higher-level skills (planning and organizing) and lower-level skills (spelling, punctuation, word choice).

Planning and teaching writing courses can be daunting due to conflicting theories and implementation factors.

Key considerations include theoretical approaches (process, genre-based, eclectic), course focus, activities, error treatment, and self-editing.

Guidelines and Approaches

Raimes offers guidelines to simplify course planning, emphasizing principles such as course goals, content, focus, materials, and evaluation.

Seow presents the process approach: planning, drafting, revising, and editing, with additional stages of responding, evaluating, and post-writing.

Reppen discusses the genre-based approach, highlighting the importance of exposing students to different text types and conventions.

Ferris emphasizes the need to develop editing skills alongside composing skills, with a three-stage approach focusing on frequent errors affecting global meaning.

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The Writing Process

Writing involves four main stages: planning, drafting, revising, and editing.

These stages are often recursive and non-linear, with writers frequently revisiting earlier stages.

Process Writing

Process writing focuses on teaching the stages of writing to enhance performance.

It includes planning, drafting, revising, editing, plus responding, evaluating, and post-writing.

Effective process writing involves structured teaching of each stage.

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Stages of Process Writing

Planning (Pre-Writing)

Group Brainstorming: Spontaneous idea generation within a group.

Clustering: Visual organization of ideas around a central topic.

Rapid Free Writing: Quick writing to generate ideas within a set time.

WH-Questions: Generating ideas through who, what, where, when, and how questions.

Drafting

Focus on fluency and idea communication, not on grammar or neatness.

Tailor writing style to the audience, such as peers or family.

Use various strategies to start writing, like quotations or provocative questions.

Responding

Provide feedback between drafting and revising to guide improvements.

Responses should be specific and constructive, helping students refine their drafts.

Revising

Improve global content and organization based on feedback, not just language errors.

Additional Tips

Responding: Crucial for successful process writing. Feedback should be timely and aimed at helping students understand their texts better.

Revising: Focus on enhancing clarity and structure, guided by feedback.

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Responding to Drafts

Questions to Consider

What are the strengths and weaknesses of this composition?

What is the central idea?

Which ideas need more detail or elaboration?

Where does the composition lose reader interest?

Where is the organization confusing or unclear?

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Rewriting Strategy

Teachers should collect drafts to encourage students to focus on their writing goals and messages, rather than just copying.

Revising with Peer Feedback

Students can read drafts aloud to each other or record and listen to their own texts to identify vague meanings and make revisions.

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Editing

Editing Focus

Review grammar, spelling, punctuation, diction, and sentence structure.

Use checklists for common errors like verb tenses, subject-verb agreement, and sentence completeness.

Purpose of Editing

Ensure clarity and accuracy in communication before final evaluation.

Editing should be done after drafting and revising to avoid disrupting idea flow.

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Evaluating and Post-Writing

Evaluating

Scoring can be analytical or holistic.

Criteria should be clear and include task interpretation, audience sense, idea development, grammar, and clarity.

Encourage self- and peer-evaluation to promote responsibility.

Post-Writing

Engage students in activities like publishing, sharing, or displaying their work to recognize and motivate their efforts.

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Implementing Process Writing

Teacher Modeling

Demonstrate the writing process and strategies during lessons.

Relating Process to Product

Help students understand expectations for each stage of writing.

Working with Constraints

Teach process skills within existing lesson structures and revisit skills in subsequent lessons.

Catering to Diverse Needs

Adapt teaching strategies to meet individual student needs and stages.

Using Computers

Utilize word-processing programs for drafting, revising, and editing to streamline the writing process.