Writing
Generation Gap The Last Laugh Good Intentions Written in the Cards Meeting the Boss
50 words; It may have dialogues; There must be a title; Generally published in newspapers or magazines;
Some of them are quiet cryptic;
01 – Think of a plot. Write the first draft. Don’t worry about the number of words.
02 – Count the words, cut or add words until the story is the right length. 03 – Write the final version in an A3 sheet of paper.
1. What is writing? The act of communicating ideas by producing graphic symbols.
2. What are some characteristics of writing? According to Penny Ur (2012), It’s permanent. It’s dense. It’s time-independent. The person or people being addressed are not physically present. It’s produced slowly. It’s a learnt and high-prestige form. It uses more standard forms.
3. What do students write inside and outside the classroom? Inside - Compositions (articles, stories, essays, letters, etc.) - Sentences - Dialogues
Outside - Text messages - Emails - Application forms - Notes - Posts in blogs, facebook, etc.
To what extent do you think writing problems are to do with language or to do with other aspects of writing as a skill to be developed?
4. Why is writing so difficult? According to Byrne (1995), Psychological factors
Linguistic factors
Cognitive factors
No possiblity of interaction or the benefit of feedback . Solitary activity.
More elaborated language. Lack of devices to help get our meaning across.
We also have to learn how to organize our ideas in such a way that they can be understood by a reader who is not present.
5. Why teach writing? -
Pedagogic purposes Assessment purposes For real purposes, as a goal of learning, to meet students’ needs To allow quieter students to show their strengths To develop self-expression. For classroom management purposes For acquisitional purposes For educational purposes
What are our main focus when we teach writing? ACCURACY
FLUENCY
- Controlled-tofree approach.
- Get one’s idea down on paper.
- Audiolingual period.
- Writing as an enjoyable experience.
- Step-by-step learning and formal correctness.
TEXT - Construction and organization of paragraphs.
PURPOSE - Reason for writing. - Writing as a form of communication.
The role of guidance - Teach learners how to write. - Provide adequate and relevant experience of the written language. - Show the learners how the written language functions as a system of communication. - Teach learners how to write texts. - Teach the learners how to write different kinds of texts. - Make writing tasks more realistic and relevant. - Integrate writing with other skills. - Use a variety of techniques and practice formats. - Provide appropriate support. - Be sympathetic.
Product -
Meet certain standards of prescribed English rhetorical style. Reflect accurate grammar. Be organized in conformity with what the audience would consider to be conventional. Attention placed to “model� compositions. Final product = good content, organization, vocabulary and grammatical uses, spelling and punctuation.
X
Process -
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Students as creator of language. Process writing leads to the final written product. Students understand their own composing process. Students build repertoire of strategies for prewriting, drafting and rewriting. Give students time to write and rewrite. Process of revision Students discover what they want to say as they write. Feedback from instructor and peers throughout the composing process.
The Process What do we know about the process of writing?
According to Hedge (2005), The process of composition is not a linear one, moving from planing to composing and revising and editing. Writing is a recursive activity in which the writer moves backwards and forwards between drafting and revising, with stages of replanning in between.
The three major activites within the process of writing PRE-WRITING
DRAFTING AND REDRAFTING
EDITING
What is the purpose of this piece of writing?
Review, get an idea of how the text is developing, revise plans, bring in new ideas or rearrange those already expressed.
Make the final readjustments and check accuracy – Is the text maximally accessible to the reader?
Who am I writing this for?
Evaluating writing materials - Does this material encourage good strategies in writing, or do we need to add steps to encourage planning, revision, etc? - What aim does this activity have? Does it focus on a useful aspect of writing, for example, paragraphing, developing sentence structure, connectives of addition?
Creating a writing lesson
Responding, Correcting and guiding (Harmer, 2007) 1.
Ways of reacting to students’ work Responding and correcting
Who responds?
The roles of the teacher
What students do
2. Ways of correcting students’ work
Selective correction Using marking scales
Referring students to a dictionary or grammar book.
Using correction symbols
Ask me
Reformulation
Remedial Teaching
3. Ways of responding to students’ work
Responding to workin-progress
Post-task statements Taped comments
Responding by written comment
Electronic comments
4. Peer review - Students are encouraged to work collaboratively. - Less authoritarian than teacher review. - Teachers and colleagues are seen as collaborators rather than evaluators.
Students need guidance from their teacher so that they know what to look at when they read their classmates’ work.
5. Training students to self-edit and self-correct Fiding mistakes
Making corrections
Understanding correction symbols
Error checklist
Removing symbols gradually
Directed questions Discussing writing
BIBLIOGRAPHY BROWN, H. (2007) Teaching by Principles. An Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy. Pearson Longman. BYRNE, D. (1995) Teaching writing Skills. Longman Group UK Limited. FRANK, C and RINVOLUCRI, M. (2007) Creative Writing. Helbling Languages. HARMER, J. (2007) How to teach writing. Pearson Education Limited. HEDGE, T. (2005) Writing. Oxford University Press. RAIMES, A. (1983) Techniques in Teaching Writing. Oxford University Press
UR, P. (2012) A Course in Language Teaching. Cambridge University in Press.
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