2. W R I T I N G O R N O T W R I T I N G.
(IT’S NOT A QUESTION)
3. WRITING IN THE CLASSROOM
Needs that require to work on writing skills:
Academic study
Examination, Preparation and Bussines English
Writing involves different kind of mental process.
5. YOU CAN DO AS TEACHER :
Choose a topic
choose a genre
get ideas
discuss ideas with others to get new perspectives
find grammar and lexis suitable for the text
study sample and model texts similar to what they want to write
co-write sections of text in groups
write a final version, find appropriate readers.
8. Write real letters / emails Think of real people to whom
students can write, eg Members of
Parliament, manufacturing companies,
fan clubs, local newspapers, other
schools, etc. Send them. Get replies.
Write back.
Write your own newsletter, Class magazine, school magazine,
magazine, blog, etc fan newsletter, local news, campaigning
on environmental or political issues, etc.
Advertise (ideas, school events, Advertise around the school,
products, etc) around town; send in your ads to local
papers.
Send comments, replies to There are now a wide number of
discussions, reviews, etc to websites discussions, message boards and
newsgroups specifically for students or
for special-interest groups. Many shop
and consumer sites invite reader reviews
of books, products, events, etc.
9. Write questionnaires and then These can be written in English
use them out In the street or in the learners' own language.
Write up the results. Publish them!
Long-term projects These are a good way of
integrating writing with other work.
The aim could be a file or book at
the end .
Apply for things, fill in forms This can be done directly
register for things, etc online if students have Internet
access or printed out on paper.
10. STEPS IN PLANING A WRITING COURSE
AND TRAINING TEACHERS OF WRITING
STEP 1. ASCERTAINING
G OA L S A N D I N S T I T U T I O N A L
CONSTRAINS:
• MINISTRIES OF
EDUCATION
• EXAMININ AND
AC C R E D I TATI O N
AG E N C I E S.
11. Writing in 1L Writing in 2L
Confortable I’m not the real me.
Free. I’m choking in a word that
Self-assured. won’t come out.
Open.
Loud
Psotive
Institutional Constraints ----- Form committes, find ways.
15. Rhetorical Model
Students need topics that allowed them to
generate ideas, find the forms to fit ideas
and invite risk taking.
16. STEP 5. DRAWING UP A SYLABUS
TYPES OF THE SYLLABUS ORGANIZATION FOR WRITING
COURSES.
STRUCTURAL.- Organizated around grammar and sentece
patterns. (sentences, descriptions, analyses… etc)
FUNCTIONAL.- Organizated around Rhetorical activities:
describing, defining, explaining, arguing, persuading, comparing and
contrasting, classifying.
17. TOPICAL.- Organized around themes: housing, health, house, education
or abstractions like succes or courage.
SITUATIONAL.- Organized around situational transactions: Applying
for a jobs, writing letter to the newspaper, writing bussines memo etc.
SKILLS AND PROCESS.- Organized around skills ad process as
generating ideas, organizing ideas, revising, writing fluency, writing
efective.
18. S T E P 7 . - P R E PA R AT I N G AC T I V I T I E S
A N D RO L E S
The teacher have to be student to.
Think about what students will be doing and lerning in the
classroom rather than the comprehensiveness of the information we
will imparting.
“Banking”: depositing knowledge in the learner’s head.
19. S T E P 9 . - E VA L UAT I N G T H E C O U R S E
Use of questionenaires, reflective logs.
PORTFOLIOS
Include some specified types of writing: in-class writing and
revised work.
Another teacher could be the evlatuator, and the teacher becomes
in a coach.
20. 1.- Introduce the Get students interested, maybe by reading a
topic text (article, letter; advert, etc) showing figures,
discussing some key issues, etc.
2.- Introduce and Make sure students are clear what they have to
summarise the main do. They need to know the genre (magazine article?
writing task letter? formal report? etc), who they are writing for
and why. Avoid bland, 'genre-free text for no
particular audience' writing tasks.
3.- Brainstorm Whole class: use the board to collect as many
ideas ideas as possible. Small groups: speak and take notes.
4.- Fast-write A very good way to overcome 'blank page'
terror and get ideas flowing is to 'fast-write' (see
Section 7).
21. 5 5.- Select and What's worth leaving but?
reject ideas
6 6.- Sort and Start to plan structure of text by
order ideas arranging ideas.
7 7.- Decide on How is the text to be laid out,
specific paragraphed, organised? Are there any
requirements: special rules (eg if it's a letter, report, etc)?
style, information, Are there things that must be included or
layout, etc stated in a certain way?
8 8.- Focus on Help students to study sample(s) of
useful models written texts similar to the one they are
writing. Focus on content, message,
organization, grammar, phrases, etc.
22. 9 9.- Plan the text Use notes, sketches or cut-up cards to start
organising a possible shape for the text.
10.- Get feedback At various points, you, other students or
groups can read and make helpful comments /
suggestions about a text. This help may be on the
content and message, the organisation, the language,
etc.
11.- Prepre Students often benefit from preparing a draft
draft(s) version before the final one. This gives them the
chance to get reader reactions and corrections. .
12.-Edit Students carefully go through their own text,
checking if it says what they want it to, if it reads
clearly and smoothly, if its language is correct, eta.
13.- Prepare final Based on feedback, students write a finished
text text
14.- Readers! Rather than simply 'mark' a text, get other
students to respond to it in some^ more realistic
ways.
23. CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES AND
STRATEGIES TO DEVELOP THE
WRITING SKILL
Text-starts
A lot of real-life writing involves looking at other texts and
summarising, reporting, responding to them, selecting ideas from
them, commenting on them, etc. Supplying 'text-starts' can be a good
way to provide useful writing work for students and practise reading /
writing skills that are useful in professional life and academic research.
24. FAST-WRITING
start writing about the topic;
not stop writing;
not put their pen down at all;
not worry about spelling, grammar, etc;
write 'um, um, um' or 'rubbish' or something else if they can't think of
what to write;
not stop to go back and read what they have written;
keep writing till you say 'stop' (which will be after five / eight / ten minutes
or however long you think is appropriate for your group).
25. USING A DIALOGUE
JOURNAL
Be creative and adapt the activity to the situation
and the learner's needs.
Keeping a dialogue journal can be a practical way to help learners
develop reading and writing fluency:
improve spelling and handwriting
understand that writing is a means of communicating, and
make reading and writing part of everyday life.
26. STEPS
1. Write a personal message in the journal that is designed to get a
response from the learner.
Examples: Start with a question such as
"Have you planted your garden? What do you usually plant?"
"What is the next event to celebrate? How will you celebrate it?"
27. 2. Have the learner write a response and return the journal to the
teacher to continue the dialogue.
Have the class discuss and agree upon a question for the next entry in
the journals.
Have learners exchange journals and read each other's thoughts and
ideas.
3. Continue to exchange the journal in this way to keep the dialogue
going
29. WRITING FLUENCY ACTIVITY
Fluency in writing, as in reading, should be one of the
aims even of beginning lessons.
This writing fluency activity helps learners learn to:
transfer a flow of speech to written words on paper
visualize spoken words, phrases, and sentences as they hear them
write entire chunks of speech rather than syllable by syllable
write fluidly rather than haltingly
30. WRITING FLUENCY ACTIVITY
Begin working word by word. Progress as soon as possible to
phrases and then to entire sentences, according to the learners' ability.
Encourage the learners to write the entire chunk (word, phrase, or
sentence) without stopping to correct mistakes.
Encourage them to write quickly but legibly.
Work on problem words only after a sentence has been written.
Do not stop during writing to sound out letters or make corrections.
31. FREE RESOURCES THAT WILL
I M P R OV E YO U R W R I T I N G S K I L L S
1. Grammar, Punctuation & Co.
Ultimate Style: The Rules Of Writing
33. Grammar Girl
Grammar Girl provides short,
friendly tips to improve your writing.
Covering the grammar rules and word
choice guidelines that can confound even
the best writers. Grammar Girl makes
complex grammar questions simple with
memory tricks to help you recall and
apply those troublesome grammar rules.
34. 2 . C O M M O N M I S TA K E S A N D
P RO B L E M S
Common Errors in English
A collection of common errors in English, with detailed explanations
and descriptions of each error.
35. AskOxford: Better Writing
A very useful reference for classic errors and helpful hints with a
terrible site navigation.
36. Dr. Grammar’s Frequently Asked Questions
Answers to common grammar questions related to English grammar,
with examples and additional explanations.
37. 3. GENERAL WRITING
SKILLS
Writer’s Digest
Writer’s Digest offers information on writing better and getting
published. The site also includes community forums, blogs and huge
lists of resources for writers
38. Infoplease: General Writing Skills
Various articles that aim to teach students how to write better.
39. The Elements of Style
A freely available online
version of the book “The
Elements of Style” by
William Strunk, Jr., the
classic reference book.
40. Poynter Writing Tools
A blog dedicated to writers and
journalists. Poynter also
provides Fifty Writing Tools:
Quick List, a collection of
podcasts related to writing.
41. 4. PRACTICAL GUIDES TO
BETTER WRITING SKILLS
Copywriting 101: An Introduction to Copywriting
This tutorial is designed to get you up and running with the basics of
writing great copy in ten easy lessons..
42. A Guide to Writing Well
“This guide was mainly distilled from On
Writing Well by William Zinsser and The
Elements of Style by Strunk and White.
Other sources are listed in the bibliography.
My memory being stubborn and lazy, I
compiled this so I could easily refresh myself
on writing well. I hope it will also be helpful
to others.”
43. Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write
for the public and have no self. Cyril Connolly, The New Statesman
The original writer is not one who imitates nobody, but one
whom nobody can imitate. ~François-René de Chateaubriand
THANKS
