ENG 24:

TEACHING OF
WRITING

JAYVAH MAE C. ESTRELLA

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

UNIT 1: TEACHING OF WRITING 3

Lesson 1: Writing 3

Lesson 2: Rules in Writing 13

Lesson 3: Writing Class 16

REFERENCES20

UNIT 1: TEACHING OF WRITING

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Objectives:

 To identify the significance of teaching writing in education.

 To determine different kinds of writing.
 To acquire knowledge about teaching writing and its types.

Lesson 1: Writing

Writing is an act or art of forming letters and characters on paper, wood, stone, or any
other materials, for the purpose of recording the ideas which characters and words express, or of
communicating them to others by visible signs. The Writing Process is a series of steps to help
you write a paper. It is like using a map to get to an unfamiliar place.

Why Write?
Developing your writing skills will not only help you to express yourself more effectively,
it will also help you achieve success in life. Being a strong writer will help you do well in school
and it will serve you well in a wide range of occupations—from law and medicine to nursing and
auto mechanics.
Types of Writing
Often, the types of writing arc grouped into modes according to form and purpose. The
chart at right shows the writing modes you will encounter in this book. Writing can also be
classified as:
1.) Reflexive Writing – refers to a writing for which the writer chooses the subject and
form. It is often written by the writer alone and is not shared with outside audience.
2.) Extensive writing – refers to a writing for which the writer is given a subject or a range
of subjects. Writing extensively results in sharing the writing.

What Are the Qualities of Good Writing?

Starting with an idea that interests you makes it more likely that you will produce a good
piece of writing. It is important, however, to consider whether potential readers will also find the
idea interesting. Even the best pieces of writing won't succeed if the audience is uninterested.
Organization- good writing has a clear and consistent organization that suits the topic. For
example, if you are telling a story, you will probably want to arrange your details
chronologically, or in the order in which they occurred.
Voice- refers to all of the distinctive qualities of your writing—from the type of language
you use and the way you put together sentences and paragraphs to the ideas you like to write
about and the attitude you convey to readers.

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 Word Choice- is a key element of good writing. By choosing words that convey your
meaning as precisely as possible and capture your attitude toward your subject, you will help to
ensure that readers understand your points and will increase the likelihood that you can sway
them to accept your viewpoint.
Sentence Fluency- in a piece of good writing, sentences seem to flow seamlessly from
one to another. Transitions make it clear how one sentence connects to the next. A variety of
lengths, structures, and openers helps to create a rhythm that engages readers.
Conventions- it is essential for a piece of writing to follow the conventions of English
grammar, usage, and mechanics. Errors in these areas will distract readers.
The Writing Process
These are the stages of the writing process: Prewriting is the stage in which you explore
possible topics, choose a topic, and then gather details you can include in your writing.
1. Pre-writing - is the stage in which you explore possible topics, choose a topic, and
then gather details you can include in your writing.
2. Free writing students write for a specified period of the time without taking their
from the page (usually three minutes for a first attempt an then typically for about five to eight
minutes)
2. Brainstorming a group exercise in which all students in the class are encouraged to
participate by sharing their collective knowledge about a particular subject
3. Listing the student is encouraged to produce as lengthy list a listing as possible of all
the main ideas and subcategories that come to mind as he or she thinks of the topic at hand.
4. Clustering begins with a keyword or central idea placed in the center of the page (or
on the blackboard) around which the student (or the teacher, using studentgenerated suggestions)
quickly jots down all free associations triggered by the subject matter, using words or short
phrases.
Choosing Your Topic - Writing with invisible ink
Narrowing Your Topic - Use a Planning Web or Cluster Diagram
Considering Your Audience and Purpose - Considering your Audience, Identify who
will read your article, Think about what your audience does and does not know about your topic,
Consider the type of language that would suit them, Considering your Purpose, and Identify what
you want to accomplish through your writing
Gathering details - Gather the specific information and ingredients you need before you
write your first draft. And Use the Reporter’s Formula Strategy to gather details. Who, What,
When, Where, Why, How

II. Drafting involves putting ideas down on paper in a rough format.

1. Shaping your Writing Focus on the form each form of writing has its own set of
objectives. Attract your readers’ attention with strong lead

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 2. Providing Elaboration - as you develop each of the paragraphs in the body of your
paper, focus on elaborating, or developing your key points by providing a thorough set of facts,
examples, and details.
III. Revising is the stage in which you rework your rough draft to improve both its form
and its content
1. Using Systematic Approach Ratiocination - applying logic to the way you look at
your work by color coding items for analysis. At each stage, use a process of color coding and
marking clues in your work to help you revise.
2. Revising Your Overall Structure - start by examining the soundness of your structure
or overall organization. Your ideas should flow logically from beginning to end.
3. Revising your paragraphs - consider the way each sentence contributes to the point
of the paragraph. As you evaluate your draft, rewrite or eliminate any sentences that are not
effective. Revising your sentences Check to see that they flow smoothly from one to the next.
Look to see that you have avoided the pattern of being most of your sentences in the same way.
4. Revising Your Word Choice - make sure that each word conveys the exact meaning
you intend. Also, look for the repetition of words, and make revisions to reduce the number of
the most commonly repeated words. Peer review Work with one or more classmates to get fresh
perspective on your writing.
Revision and Editing Focused Exercises
•The content of the passage should be related as closely as possible to whatever topics
students are working on so that they can review core vocabulary or concepts.
•Similar exercises could involve other frequent morphological errors, such as regular plural
nouns without –s. Students would then check their own drafts to correct similar errors.
Example: We tested velocity by placing a green trace dye on the surface of the plot, at a
measured point. After each run we estimated the vegetation cover using a five-point pin frame.
We placed the pin frame in 20 places on the plot, moving downward.
Rewritten: Velocity was tested by placing a green trace dye on the surface of the plot, at a
measured point. After each run, the vegetation cover was estimated using a five-point pin frame.
The pin frame was placed on the plot, moving downward.
•To make texts as natural as possible, the instructor can simply underline or number the
sentences in a text to be rewritten. Afterward, students should identify contextual factors that
influence use of the passive.
1.) Sentence Combining - this technique for developing syntactic fluency often involved
combining a set of kernel sentences
Example: The man was old. The man had gray hair. The man walked down the street. The
man walked slowly.
Combined: The old, gray-haired man walked slowly down the street.
2.) Guided Paraphrase
ESL/EFL writers often lack the facility with vocabulary and syntax to rephrase ideas in
their own words; most experienced teachers are familiar with the distorted paraphrases that result

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when novice writers “slot” synonyms from a thesaurus into the original sentence without
adjusting the grammar. In cued paraphrase exercises, writers transform sentences or parts of
sentences from assigned readings, using cues as the first step. The cues which may be words or
phrases are designed to require syntactic restructuring in the paraphrase.
Example:
Original: People trying to interpret a situation often look at those around them to see how to
react. (Base reactions on)
Rewrite: People trying to interpret a situation often base their reactions on those around them.
Original: Even if a person defines an event as an emergency… (Decides)
Rewrite: Even if a person decides that an event is an emergency…

3.) Text Elicitation

•The instructor specifies a topic or writing objective and a grammatical structure or structures
to be used.
•Excellent sources for eliciting summary include surveys, graphs or charts on topics related to
writing themes, or genres such as research articles.
•Can be used to focus on diagnosed structural problems, to develop syntactic complexity, to
familiarize students with discourse-based grammar conventions, and to provide strategies for
organizing and displaying information.

4.) Dictation
•Can be an effective way to familiarize students with the ways in which grammar and
vocabulary interact in common collocations as well as to address errors in writing that may result
in part from mismatches between learners’ aural perception of English forms and Standard
English grammar and spelling.
•The instructor reads aloud a short text several times, usually one related to the topic or genre
on which students are working.
•The text is first read at a normal pace, with the students just listening. For the second reading,
the teacher pauses after each phrase to allow students to write.
•The third reading, done at a normal pace, gives students the opportunity to read over the texts
and make corrections.
5.) Text Completion
Cloze Passage- each blank represents a single word to fill in
-can be created either by random deletion of words or by deletion of a specific item.
-if based on student texts can serve as an error correction technique if the writer has
produced errors in the grammatical item deleted.

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 Gapped Text- do not specify the number of words required for each blank, they can be
used to elicit deleted verbs that include forms with more than one word, such as passives,
progressive aspect and present perfect.
Third Type of Text Completion - asks students to consider syntactic structures with
essentially the same meaning and to choose the more appropriate rendering of the information
based on the preceding discourse context.
Example: Climatologists have predicted that the continual warming of the earth’s
surface, commonly known as “the greenhouse,” could have dramatic consequences.
1. (A) the melting of the polar ice caps could be one result. (b) One result could be the
melting of the polar ice caps.
2. (A) this melting would, in turn, cause a rise of the sea level. (b) A rise of the sea level
would, in turn, be caused by this melting.

IV. Editing and proofreading are the stages in which you polish your writing, fixing errors
in grammar, spelling, and mechanics.
Proofreading- This is a process whereby the text is being scanned for grammar, syntax
and spelling errors.
Editing- This process concentrates less on the form and more on the terminology.
EDITING STRATEGIES AND TECHNIQUES
Editing Techniques that may work for Students:
1. Read-Aloud Technique. Many students find that slowly reading their drafts aloud to listen for
errors can help them in making corrections. For short papers, some students who are aware of
their error patterns read through the paper several times, listening for different kinds of errors
each time. Multiple readings are not realistic for long papers
2. Pointing to Words. Some writers use pencil, pen, or finger to point for words one by one.
3. “Slowdown” Techniques. Involves reading a draft in some way that is in contrast to the
normal linear process, such as starting with the last sentence in each paragraph and reading in
reverse. May help writers detect certain kinds of morphological errors such as missing plural
endings, but would not work well for others, such as reference words or subject-verb agreement.
4. Word Processing Grammar Checkers. Grammar checkers in word processors can flag
certain kinds of errors. As long as writers do not blindly follow the suggestions (since grammar
checkers can often create errors rather than correct them if suggestions are taken
indiscriminately), checkers can be helpful in getting writers to pay attention to potential errors. If
students do not understand the suggested correction, they should not make the change.
More Advanced Writing Tasks: Developing Basic Communication Tools
•enable focus on both accuracy and content of the message
•practical writing tasks, emotive tasks, and school-oriented tasks

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SET OF SPECIFICATIONS
Task Description: to present students with the goal of the task and its importance.
Content Description: to present students with possible content areas that might be relevant to
the task.
Audience Description: to guide students in developing an understanding of the intended
audience, their background, needs, and experiences.
Format Cues: to help students in planning the overall organizational structure of the written
product.
Linguistic Cues: to help students make use of certain grammatical structures and vocabulary
choices.
Spelling and Punctuation Cues: to help students focus their attention on spelling rules which
they have learned and eventually on the need to use the dictionary for checking accuracy of
spelling, and to guide students to use acceptable punctuation and capitalization conventions.

PRACTICAL WRITING TASKS

•lists of various types, notes, short messages, simple instructions, and other writing tasks
•useful in reinforcing classroom work
•suitable for writing activities that focus primarily on spelling and morphology procedural in
nature and have a predictable format

Lists can be of many types: “things to do” lists, “things completed” lists, or shopping lists. Each
of these list types provides us with opportunity to combine some spelling rules with
morphological rules and with the logical creation of a meaningful message.
“Things to do” lists
•are useful for practicing verb base forms and reinforcing various sound-spelling
correspondences.
•either personal or intended for a group.
•content specification will have to indicate whether this is a list of things to do in preparation for
some event or just a plan for someone’s daily routine
Example: A list for a group of students who are preparing a surprise birthday party might look
like this:
Things to do
1. Buy a present for Donna (Sharon).
2. Call Donna’s friends (Gail).
3. Write invitations (Dan). etc.

“Things completed” lists

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•Specifies the things that have already been taken care of and is therefore useful for practicing
past forms of verbs.
•Enables students to practice the spelling of irregular past-tense formations.
Example: The list might look like this when partially completed:
Things completed:
1. Planned the games for the party.
2. Wrote the invitations.
3. Bought the present.
4. Called the friends.
5. Tried to call Donna’s mother.

Shopping lists

•Provide us with a very good opportunity to practice the spelling of the plural ending of
countable nouns and the use of quantifiers.

Notes and messages

•Allow students to practice brief and simple sentences with proper punctuation and a meaningful
message.
•Students can design their own message headings and then fill them in.

Example: Messages for My Little Sister

Wash the dishes in the sink.

Feed the dog.
Watch your favorite program on TV and have a good time.

EMOTIVE WRITING TASKS

•Concerned with personal writing

•Includes letters to friends and narratives describing personal experiences, as well as personal
journals and diaries.

Letter Writing - emphasis can be placed on format, punctuation, and spelling of appropriate
phrases and expressions.

Personal Experiences Writing - usually done in a narrative format- spelling of past-tense forms
can be reviewed and practiced.

Diaries and journals - can take the form of personal letters and serve as a review of letter
writing in general.

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 The different types of emotive writing activities are, of course, suitable for the more
advanced stages of the course, but they can be carries out, in a more limited manner, even at the
initial stages.
Thus: Personal letters can be limited to the level of structural and vocabulary knowledge
of the students at each point in time. Journal and personal writing activities can reflect the
learner’s proficiency level.

SCHOOL-ORIENTED TASKS

One of the most important functions of writing in a student’s life Students are writing
assignments, answers to questions, or a variety of essay-type passages. It is the combination of
content and organization with accepted formal features that will lead learners to better utilization
of the writing skill in their future use of English.

Two Dimensions of Writing

•Consolidatory writing -designed to reinforce oral skills. It provides opportunity for the
application of the basic structures, the grammar rules, lexical items, and rhetorical patterns
gained through oral and reading experiences and activities.

•Free writing or free composition- focuses on the creative use of language in the
communication of ideas. Example: personal notes and letters, business notes and letters,
explanation, argumentation, simple narration, etc.

Trends in Classroom Practices and Techniques

Copying: The First Step

pupils begin by copying sentences from their readers or from their oral exercises. After
several practice exercises on sentence copying, the pupils advance to copying paragraphs,
dialogues, short conversations, and lines or stanzas of poetry.

The major concerns in every copying activity are legibility and accuracy.

Close attention is given to capitalization and punctuation rules as well as paragraph

structure and correct spelling.

Activity 1:

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Instruction: The students will have to make an essay about the importance of teaching writing.

Activity 2:
Instruction: The students will have to make an essay to about the difference of reflexive and
extensive writing.

Activity 3:
Instruction: The students will have to make an essay about the difference of consolidatory
writing and free writing/composition.

Lesson 2: Rules in Writing

Capitalization

1. Every sentence begins with a capital letter.

2. The personal pronoun ‘I’ is always written as a capital letter.

3. Proper nouns begin with a capital letter; abbreviations of proper nouns are capitalized.

4. Most adjectives derived from proper nouns begin with capital letter.

5. Every title attached to the name of the person is capitalized.

6. Every line of poetry begins with capital letter.

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7. The first word of a direct quotation is capitalized.

8. All names that refer to God and the names of all sacred books are capitalized.

9. The first word and other words in title of books, poems, stories, and compositions, except
articles, conjunctions, and prepositions are capitalized.

10. The names of the definite geographical parts of a country begin with capital letter. The
words: north, south, east, west, when used merely to indicate direction do not begin with
capital letter.

11. Father, mother, uncle, aunt, cousin and other words which show personal relationship do
not begin with capital letters unless they are used as a part of a proper name.

12. The names of the days of the week, the months of the year, holidays, but not the name of
seasons, are capitalized.

13. The names of the school subjects are not capitalized unless they are proper nouns or
proper adjectives.

14. The first word including the nouns, in the salutation of a letter begins with a capital letter.

15. The first word of every part of an outline is capitalized.

Punctuation

A period is used:

After a complete declarative and an imperative sentence.

After an abbreviated word or a single or double initial letter representing a word.

A question mark is used after a direct question.

An exclamation mark is used after a sentence indicating a strong emotion.

A comma is used:

to separate words in a series.

to separate the parts of addresses, dates, geographical names.

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 to set off a noun used in direct address
to set off yes/no from the rest of the sentences.
to set off quotation expression such as he said, he says, etc.

Paragraphing
1. The beginning of a paragraph is shown by the indention of the first word.
2. Indent the first word of all paragraphs the same distance from the margin. In a story, a direct
quotation requires a separate paragraph.
3. In a dialogue, the exact words of the speaker should be written in a separate paragraph in order
to make clear the change of speaker.
4. Begin a new paragraph for each new division of thought.

Dictation = A device in a controlled program found by TESL teachers to be very useful

particularly in a beginners class for the development of basic writing skills.
The Dicto-Comp = This is a combination of a dictation exercise and composition writing
activity. In the choice of a passage for the dicto- comp activity, the grade level of the class,
the general ability of the pupils, their interests and needs are considered

Writing Integrated with Speaking = The teachers involved in TESL and TESOL programs
recommend that every writing activity should be preceded by an oral build-up which may take
the form of a controlled speaking activity, a brainstorming session, or a reading exercise.

Sentence-Combining Approach = Thiede-Gonzo found out that an intensive sentence –

combining course resulted in the growth of students in syntactic fluency. She points out that
“sentence-combining practice has received enthusiastic endorsement from teachers.”

The Model Composition Technique = Teachers of English continue to give favorable support
to the practice of teaching composition writing with the use of models. Behind this popular
acceptance is the conviction, which is backed up by experienced, the one of the most effective
ways of learning how to write in English, in any language for that matter, is exposure to the
different rhetorical patterns of the language through extensive reading and intensive practice in
the actual writing of compositions.

Activity 1:

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 Lesson 2: Types of Writing

Instruction: The students will explain at least 5 items under Capitalization’s rules in writing
through essay.

Activity 2:

Instruction: The students will explain at least 3 items under Punctuations’s rules in writing
through essay.

Activity 3:

Instruction: The students will explain at least 3 items under Paragraphing’s rules in writing
through essay.

Lesson 3: Writing Class

THE WRITING CLASS: WAYS TO CARRY OUT A WRITING CLASS

SYLLABUS DESIGN: Considerations in making a syllabus in a writing class:

1. How much writing students are expected to complete during the term divided into less formal
work such as journals and more formal work such as assignments.

2. What the timelines and deadlines are for working on and completing papers.

3. How many of the formal writing assignments will be done in class as “timed” pieces.

4. What aspects of the composing process will be presented?

5. What aspects of English grammar and syntax, if any, will be directly addressed to the class?

6. What will be seen to constitute “progress” in acquiring improved writing skills as the term
moves along?

7. How much reading (and possibly which specific readings) will be covered.

8. How the students’ grade or a decision of credit/no credit will be determined.

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Using Readings in the Writing Class

Advantages:

•Readings provide models of what English language looks like (particularly for ELLs who have
less proficiency in language), and even if not for the purpose of imitation, awareness of English
language prose style.

•Close reading exercises can be done to draw attention to particular stylistic choices,
grammatical features, methods of development, and markers of cohesion and coherence, etc.

• Help to raise awareness of the choices writers make and the consequences of those choices for
the achievement of communicative goals.

• Further readings help students develop and refine genre awareness.

• Writing tasks assigned by professors require students to do a great deal of reading in order to
synthesize and analyze academic material in particular content areas.

• Using readings as a basis to practice such skills as summarizing, paraphrasing, interpreting, and
synthesizing concepts.

Disadvantage:
• If a teacher uses the topic or content area of the readings to turn generic writing course into a
class in the subject matter area of the readings.

Writing Assignments: 6 Guidelines for the Preparation of Successful Writing Assignments

•A writing assignment should be presented with its context clearly delineated such that the
student understands the reason for the assignment.

•The content of the task/ topic should be accessible to the writers and allow for multiple
approaches.

•The language of the prompt or task and the instructions it is embedded in should be un-
ambiguous, comprehensible, and transparent.

• The task should be focused enough to allow for completion in the time or length constraints
given and should further students’ knowledge of classroom content and skills.

• The rhetorical specifications (cues) should provide a clear direction of likely shape and format
of the finished assignment, including appropriated references to an anticipated audience.

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• The evaluation criteria should be identified so that the students will know how their output will
be judged.

Responding Key Questions to Address

a. What are the general goals within the writing course for providing feedback to students?

b. What are the specific goals for providing feedback on a particular piece of writing?

c. At what stage in the writing process should feedback be offered?

d. What form should feedback take?

e. Who should provide the feedback?

f. What should students do with the feedback they receive?

Goal-Setting

• implementing a variety of response types and on training students to maximize the insights of
prior feedback to future writing occasions

• students’ make best use of commentary provided to them.

Shaping Feedback

• Students must also be trained to use the feedback in ways that will improve their writing, be it
on the next draft or on other writing assignments. The more specific and the lengthier the
individual comments are the more likely they are to lead to positive change.

Teaching Strategies: Writing

Guidelines in the Management of the Teaching- Learning Process for Writing

1. In the early stage of language learning, written English grows out of oral English. In short, for
beginners writing is an opportunity to record the work in oral language.

2. When one sits down to write something, one wants to have control of the language and to be
able to use it readily and effectively Guidelines in the Management of the Teaching-Learning
Process for Writing

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3. Writing is the act of putting sentences together in connected discourse, but the main focus is
on basic communicability.

4. An acceptable writing program is designed to give beginning learners the feeling that they are
able to write and what they write has value. Guidelines in the Management of the Teaching-
Learning Process for Writing

5. Writing is communication-oriented.

6. When one writes, one transforms experiences and thoughts into arbitrary symbols labeled as
words.

7. To write well at all, one must have had experiences and must be able to use one or more sets
of symbols. Guidelines in the Management of the Teaching-Learning Process for Writing

8. To write well, one must understand the experiences he has and one must also be able to
manipulate words and English patterns to give the reader a clear sense both of the experiences
which are transformed and of ideas about attitudes towards those experiences. Guidelines in the
Management of the Teaching-Learning Process for Writing

9. Writing activities should be functional and should be performed in an audience situation and
in a setting as natural and life-like as possible.

10. Teachers of writing can avoid the problems caused by the limited mastery of grammar and of
the English idioms by requiring their students to use facts of first-hand experience. Guidelines in
the Management of the Teaching-Learning Process for Writing

11. Good writing can be taught by teachers who provide frequent and challenging opportunities
for writing to enable the students to develop their skill and confidence. Guidelines in the
Management of the Teaching-Learning Process for Writing

Activity 1:

Instruction: The students will explain at least 2 Advantages and 1 Disadvantage of using
readings in the writing class through essay.

Activity 2:

Instruction: The students will explain at least 3 items about the guidelines for preparation to
achieve a successful writing assignment in writing through essay.

Activity 3:

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Instruction: The students will explain at least 3 items about the questions that are necessary to
address in writing through essay.

REFERENCES

https://www.slideshare.net/JuneMar21/teaching-of-writing

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