What is Writing?

0 Physical act
0 Cognitive act
0 Interpersonal act
0 A process leading to a product

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 Purposes of Writing
0 To inform
0 To persuade
0 To maintain relationships
0 To document events, occurrences, etc.
0 To record experiences, feelings, observations,
etc.

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 Types of Writing

Type Features Examples

• Shopping lists
• Usually informal
• Diaries/Journals
• Personal Writing • Less structured
• Letters
• Private
• Messages/Notes

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 Types of Writing (cont’d)

Type Features Examples

• Advertisements
• Business
• Well-organised Letters
• Transactional • Attention to • Forms
Writing information or
• Instruction
message to be
Manuals
conveyed
• Menus
• Reports

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 Types of Writing (cont’d)

Type Features Examples

• Novel
• Self- • Poetry
• Creative
expression • Short
Writing
or leisure stories
• Songs

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What a Writer Needs to Know
0 Mechanics of writing – the letters of the alphabet,
spelling of words, punctuation marks

0 Grammatical rules and patterns – e.g. agreement,

tense, sentence structure, sentence type, cohesive
devices

0 Word choice – use of the right or the most suitable

word for a particular piece of writing
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 What a Writer Needs to Know
(cont’d)
0 Style or register – the layout and the language
used for a particular type of writing

0 Organisational skills – well-formed

paragraphs, ideas which flow logically or
coherently

0 Content – relevant information about the topic

presented clearly, logically, and with
originality

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 What a Writer Needs to Know
(cont’d)
0 Purpose – the objective or reason for writing

0 Audience – who will be the reader(s), their

interests, their background knowledge, their
proficiency level

0 The writing process – getting ideas, drafting,

revising, editing

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 What a Writer Needs to Know
(cont’d)
0 Thinking skills – decide what is or is not
important information, argue a point logically, use
imagination and creativity when presenting
information, decide how much information is
enough

0 Value systems – a writer’s views on content or

subject matter, on what constitutes good writing,
and on how to communicate with people affect
the way a writer writes
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 Difficulties in Writing
0 “The writer is a lonely figure cut off from the
stimulus and corrective of listeners. He must
be a predictor of reactions and acts on his
predictions”
0 Distance between writer and audience –
unable to communicate with the intended
audience; need to predict the audience’s
general and subject matter knowledge, their
cultural and literary schemata, and how the
choice of language will be interpreted

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Difficulties in Writing (cont’d)
0 “He writes with one hand behind his back,
being robbed of gesture. He is robbed too of
the tone of his voice and the aid of clues the
environment provides.”

0 Accuracy is important – use of grammar and

mechanics

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Difficulties in Writing (cont’d)
0 “He is condemned to monologue; there is no
one to help out, to fill silences, put words in
his mouth, or make encouraging noises.”

0 Careful selection of words, good organisation

of ideas, correct style of writing

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Difficulties in Writing (cont’d)
0 Orthography – writing in a second or foreign
language may require learning its writing
system, i.e. the alphabet or graphemes

0 Conventions of writing – e.g. left to right or

vice versa, layout of a letter, openings and
closings of different types of writing, tone of a
piece of writing

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 Issues in Second Language Writing

0 Composing vs. writing – writing involves

composing. Composing involves generating
ideas, organising these ideas coherently and
cohesively, revising, editing, and producing a
final product.

0 Process vs. product – the process is as

important as the product

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 Issues in Second Language Writing
(cont’d)
0 Contrastive rhetoric – different languages
organise their written discourse differently.
Such a difference may influence learning to
write in another language.

0 Authenticity – how much real writing is

required of learners?

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 Theories of Writing
0 Formalist or Traditional Theory
0 Based on behaviourism whereby language learning
is habit formation or conditioning
0 Focus is on form and accuracy, i.e. correct spelling,
grammar, and organisation
0 The product approach to teaching writing
0 Authoritative or ‘model’ texts are used for students
to imitate or adapt
0 The teacher’s role is to instill a sense of correctness
of language and conformity to models of ‘good’
writing

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 Theories of Writing (cont’d)
0 Expressivism Theory
0 Focus is on self-expression, self-discovery,
fluency
0 Accuracy is secondary to expression of ideas
0 Promotes ‘free writing’ whereby students
write on a topic that interests them; journal
writing
0 The teacher’s role is as a facilitator in the
classroom
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 Theories of Writing (cont’d)
0 Cognitivism Theory
0 Focus is on the mental processes that are
involved in writing
0 The process approach to teaching writing
0 Writing is controlled by the writer

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 Theories of Writing (cont’d)
0 Social Constructionism Theory
0 Focus is on the writer and his discourse
community
0 Writing is a social activity
0 The genre approach to teaching writing
0 The teacher’s role is to introduce students
to the different genres or text types
available
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 Approaches to Teaching Writing
0 The Product Approach
0 Subscribes to the formalist theory
0 Emphasises the product
0 Emphasises form over content
0 Is prescriptive
0 Is teacher-centred

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 Approaches to Teaching Writing
(cont’d)
0 The Process Approach
0 Emphasises the process of writing
0 Emphasises content over form
0 Writing strategies are taught
0 The teacher provides learners with time (to
experiment with ideas during the stages of
drafting and revising) and feedback (on
drafts)
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 The Process Approach
0 Pre-writing
0 How do student writers generate ideas?
0 Brainstorming
0 Listing
0 Quickwrite
0 Mind-mapping
0 How do they organise ideas?
0 Decide on which ideas to use and where to put them

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 The Process Approach
(cont’d)
0 Drafting
0 A first draft based on the outline of ideas
0 Writing is often interrupted as students stop to think,
re-read, review, add new ideas, make changes
0 Always bear in mind the purpose of writing and the
audience
0 Focus is on content, i.e. on what to say

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 The Process Approach
(cont’d)
0 Revising/Rewriting/Redrafting
0 Improvement of composition by making the meaning or
the ideas clearer and the composition more interesting
0 Focus is on form, i.e. on how to say it most effectively

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 The Process Approach
(cont’d)
0 Editing/Proofreading
0 Post-writing stage
0 Involves reading the whole composition by assuming
the role of a reader
0 Focus is on both content and form

0 Publishing
0 The finished product should be free of errors.

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 Approaches to Teaching Writing (cont’d)

0 The Controlled-to-free Approach

0 The first step towards writing composition
0 Limited opportunity to make mistakes; learners
produce error-free sentences or paragraphs on a
given topic
0 Beginner and intermediate level of proficiency
0 Substitution tables, parallel writing, questions and
answers, sentence combining and sentence
completion exercises, and dictation

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 Approaches to Teaching Writing (cont’d)

0 The Free-writing Approach

0 Emphasis is on content or quantity
0 Many free writing activities on given topics
0 A teacher’s comments are restricted to content; the
teacher refrains from correcting errors
0 The student is encouraged to develop a fluency for
writing by concentrating on content and later on
accuracy and organisation
0 Intermediate-level learners

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 Approaches to Teaching Writing (cont’d)

0 The Paragraph-pattern Approach

0 Emphasis is on the organisation of ideas into
paragraphs
0 Used in learning to write in a second or foreign language
0 Model paragraphs and texts are given to students for
analysis and practice.

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 Approaches to Teaching Writing (cont’d)

0 The Grammar-syntax-organisation Approach

0 Grammar, syntax, and organisation must be learned
together.
0 Writing activties are designed to include all three
aspects, e.g. describing a process.

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 Approaches to Teaching Writing (cont’d)

0 The Communicative Approach

0 Emphasis is on the reason for writing and the reader
0 Questions to ask oneself are “Why am I writing this?”
and “Who will read it?”
0 Tasks are designed to reflect real-life writing situations;
authentic and meaningful writing activities
0 Readership is extended to the writer’s classmates

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 Types of Classroom Writing Performance

0 Imitative, or writing down

0 At the beginning level of learning to write
0 Students “write down” letters, words, and sentences
0 Students learn the conventions of the orthographic code

0 Intensive, or controlled
0 Grammar exercises, e.g. change all present tense verbs
found in a given paragraph to past tense

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 Types of Classroom Writing Performance
(cont’d)
0 Guided writing, e.g. after watching a video clip, students
are asked to write a story based on the teacher’s
questions about the clip

0 Dicto-comp, e.g. a paragraph is read one or two times at

normal speed and students are asked to rewrite the
paragraph to the best of their recollection of the reading

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 Types of Classroom Writing Performance
(cont’d)
0 Self-writing
0 Writing with only the self in mind as an audience
0 Note-taking
0 Diary or journal writing
0 Dialogue journal

0 Display writing
0 Short answer exercises
0 Essays
0 Research reports
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 Types of Classroom Writing Performance
(cont’d)
0 Real writing
0 Writing in order to communicate a message to a specific
audience in need of the message
0 Writing letters, post cards, messages

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 Responding to Writing
0 Reasons for giving feedback
0 To help students revise and improve their writing
0 To help students evaluate what they have written
0 To help students improve the quality of their ideas
0 To motivate students to become more effective
writers

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 Types of Feedback
0 Teacher-student feedback
0 Teacher-class feedback
0 Student-student feedback
0 Student-self feedback

0 Verbal or written form of feedback

0 Positive comments and suggestions for improvement

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 Types of Feedback (cont’d)
0 Verbal feedback
0 Conferencing or one-to-one session with the
teacher
0 The teacher can get immediate answers to
questions regarding a student’s composition

0 Written feedback
0 Comments or suggestions are clear and relevant
0 The student understands them and is able to use
them in improving the composition

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Teacher-Student/Class Feedback
0 Audience or Reader
0 Tell the student what you like, what you disagree
with, what you cannot understand, etc.
0 Assistant or Advisor
0 Suggest ways to improve the written work
0 “Maybe if you add a little more detail here, that may
make the story more interesting” or “Why not leave
this bit out. You’ve said the same thing in paragraph
1. The reader may get bored.”

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Teacher-Student/Class Feedback
(cont’d)
0 Resource Person
0 Tell students words they don’t know
0 Show them where they can get the
information they need
0 Be there for them to consult on whatever
they need help with

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Teacher-Student/Class Feedback
(cont’d)
0 Evaluator
0 Assess all aspects of a composition, i.e. content,
organisation, grammar, vocabulary, etc.
0 Assess drafts and final product

0 Examiner
0 Award a grade or mark for a piece of writing
produced under exam conditions

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 Student-Student Feedback
0 Provides the student writer with real readers
0 Different reactions from different readers sensitises
him to the needs of his target audience
0 Comments from his peers help him recognise his
strengths and weaknesses as a writer
0 Enables the student writer to learn different
compositional strategies from his peers

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 Student-Self Feedback
0 The student writer is made aware of the qualities a
piece of writing would need to have in order to be
considered good.
0 He can evaluate his own writing and work towards
achieving these qualities.
0 He can take greater responsibility for his own
learning.

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 Practices of “Good” Writers
0 Focus on a goal or main idea in writing
0 Perceptively gauge their audience
0 Spend some time planning to write
0 Easily let their ideas flow onto the paper
0 Follow a general organisational plan as they
write

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 Practices of “Good” Writers
(cont’d)
0 Solicit and utilise feedback on their writing
0 Revise their work willingly and efficiently
0 Patiently make as many revisions as needed

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