Teaching Writing

By
Dr. Mohammed Ghawi
 Definition
Writing is a complex process through which one communicates ideas
through the use of written words. It often triggers thinking because once
ideas are written down, they become subject to examining, arranging,
adding and modifying (recursive nature of writing).
Approaches to Teaching Writing
 1. The Product Approach
Teachers in this approach mainly focus on the final outcome of writing. They assign writing
tasks and correct mistakes related to grammar, vocabulary, spelling, and punctuation.
When students receive their writing assignments full of red makings, they often feel
frustrated and put the assignments aside without even bothering to modify them.
 2. The Process Approach
In this approach, the focus of the student and the teacher shifts from the final
writing outcome to the writing process. Students write first drafts, revise them,
write second drafts and so on until they have the final draft ready. Throughout these
stages of writing, they receive feedback from both their teachers and classmates.
 Stages of the Writing
Process
.Writers often practice writing in three stages: pre-writing, writing, post-writing
 A. Pre-Writing Stage
The main focus in this phase is on generating ideas and language related to the writing topic. The
following techniques are often done in the classroom under the supervision of the teacher:
• Brainstorming: The teacher elicits ideas and language related to the topic without worrying about
their sequence, organization, or even quality.
• Clustering: The teacher and his/her students generate ideas related to the topic in the form of
circles. The biggest circle contains the topic and is written in the middle of the board or the page.
Small circles branch from the big circle in different directions as students start to suggest ideas
related to the topic. The small circles branch into smaller circles as details and supporting ideas
are generated.
• Outlining: The teacher directs students to make use of the ideas elicited through brainstorming or
clustering to prepare an outline of the writing topic. The outline should contain main ideas and
supporting details for the writing topic.
 B. Writing Stage
• Writing draft 1: This stage is often done at home. Students make use of the ideas,
vocabulary, and expressions generated in the pre-writing stage to write the first draft
of the topic and give it to the teacher for feedback on form, content, organization, and
mechanics. Some teachers follow the selective feedback technique, i.e., they choose
to focus on one aspect of writing with each topic. However, most of the teachers
favor comprehensive feedback because they cannot tolerate seeing a mistake without
correcting it. Even students prefer feedback on the various aspects of their writing.
Teachers should be careful to familiarize students with their feedback techniques and
any correction symbols they use.
• Writing draft 2: Students make use of the teacher’s feedback to write a revised copy
of the writing task. Most of the teachers and students do not prefer working on a
third draft, but this is done in the process approach if the second draft still contains
problems related to the various aspects of writing.
 C. Post Writing Stage
• The teacher meets with the students individually to discuss the strong and weak points
in their writing.
• The teacher selects samples of the students’ good writing topics and posts them in the
school bulletin board or publishes them in the school magazine.
• The teacher selects samples of students’ common mistakes without mentioning names.
The samples are either reproduced in a worksheet or projected on the board. Students
work in pairs or groups to correct the mistakes. An error-free copy of the samples is then
prepared in a whole-class discussion format under the supervision of the teacher.
 The Process Genre Approach .3
• This approach focuses on giving students practice in non-academic writing tasks such as
formal letters, informal letters, CVs, book reviews, article reviews, film reviews, emails, etc.
Students are often presented with models to read and analyze before they are asked to
produce similar texts. This approach stresses issues such as purpose, audience, and
specific features related to the genre.
• Proponents of this approach advocate the integration of the other language skills (reading,
speaking, listening) into the writing task. For example, students may do the writing task
after reading a passage or listening to text on a related topic. Students do a number of
vocabulary, grammar, and comprehension exercises before they begin the writing task.
• Students go through the stages of the process writing approach (pre-writing, drafting,
revising) to benefit from the provided feedback.
Types of Writing Activities
 1. Controlled Writing Activities

Beginning writers are supposed to trace and copy letters and words. At
high beginning and pre-intermediate levels, they manipulate sentences
and modify or model paragraphs. The focus in this type of writing tasks
is mainly on accuracy.
 Handwriting
It is a form of imitative writing in which pupils learn how to write the alphabet
and some simple words. Students are often trained to write on four parallel
.lines, then on two lines, and finally on one line
 Copying

It is a form of writing which aims at giving students further training in handwriting and
.developing their consciousness of spelling and punctuation marks
 Sentence Combining
It is the combining of simple sentences into longer compound or
complex sentences. It improves students’ sentence structure, length of
sentences, and sentence variety.
 Dictation
It is a valuable instrument for practicing aural comprehension, distinguishing sounds and
words, recognizing grammatical forms, and developing spelling consciousness (prepared
words, sentences, text; punctuation marks should be dictated).

Dictation Steps: (a) First reading at normal speed while students are just listening
(normally-paced, clear and expressive); (b) Second reading in units at a fairly slow speed;
(c) Third reading at normal speed at the end.

Dictation Feedback: Self-correction, peer-correction, teacher-correction

 Guided Writing Activities.2
Teachers often guide students’ writing through carefully chosen questions or writing
models.
 Scrambled Sentences
Students re-arrange sentences to make complete paragraphs
 Transformed Paragraphs
.Students write parallel paragraphs by changing the subject, the tense, affirmative to negative
 Story Completion

Students write different endings to a story.

 Question and Answer

Students are asked a series of questions, the answers of

which form the text. Carefully constructed questions
often help students to produce coherent texts.
 Parallel Writing
Students read and analyze a passage or a letter and then write their
own on a similar theme, utilizing the vocabulary, sentence structure,
cohesive devices, and organization of the model.
 Free Writing .3
In this type of activities, students generate, organize, and express their own ideas in their own
words. In this type of activities, fluency and quantity are more important than quality.
Students are often asked to write about different topics that are of interest to them.
Points Writers should Keep in Mind
in Free Writing Activities
The purpose
The audience
The content
Syntax
Grammar
Proper choice of words 
The mechanics of writing
Organization
 Feedback Tips
- Read the students' piece of writing a first time without a pen in hand.
- Write comments on strengths and weaknesses.
- Make sure your students are familiar with your correction symbols.
- Decide on a strategy for handling errors (correct all or some).
- Remember that your main task is to help students know what to do next.
- Provide in-text and end-of-text comments.
- Avoid general comments such as good and bad.
- Give specific suggestions on what to revise.
- Ask elaboration and clarifying questions.
- Hold individual conferences with students.
- Provide a check-list when you use peer correction.
- Hold a feedback session of common mistakes.
Correction Symbols
Thank You