The Writing Process

The Writing Process Abell & Atherton Educational Consulting, Inc.

Prewriting • Talking (sharing ideas, discussion of topic and their views, role-playing, persuasion, etc.) • Reading and analyzing models (backmapping, analysis of format and development, etc.) • Brainstorming • Mapping • Planning • Webbing • Story boarding, etc. • Creating a writer’s plan, which considers audience, purpose, format, and ideas • Researching

Drafting • Modeling • Use • Other students’ writing • Professional writing • Your writing • Provide ample time and space to write • Provide tools to make drafting more fun and easier (post it notes, gel pens, tape, scissors, etc.) • Conference with students throughout • Remind students of the importance of treating drafting as a step separate from editing

Revising • Help students to learn to try a new approach if the one they’ve tried isn’t working. • Make sure all the anticipated needs of the audience are met for the particular purpose/ text. • Model each revision strategy using your own work; then send students back to revise their own. • Have revision conferences in which students come to you with a question • Use sentence combining to build complex sentences • Use ARMS to help writers understand what “revision” means

ARMS • Add – (details, snapshots, dialogue, examples, etc.) • Remove – (distractors, unnecessary dialogue, details that don’t fit, weak ideas) • Move – (words, phrases, sentences, paragraphs) • Substitute – (more powerful words, stronger verbs for adverbs)

Editing • Model and practice editing together • Use students’ own work as good models or as drill for sentence error correction • Teach editing skills throughout the year • Give students self-editing checklists • Set up editing groups, with an “expert” in charge of each main focus (Capitalization, punctuation, etc.) • Use sentence combining exercises for editing as well as revising skills. • Have editing conferences, focusing on only one correctness issue at a time • Use CUPS

CUPS • Capitalization • Usage • Punctuation • Spelling

Publishing • Technology and the internet (Blogs, webcasts, web pages, etc.) • Exchange writing with other classes and students • Read to principal • Display on community or school bulletin board • Author’s chair • Mail or e-mail • Newsletters • Media center • Pop-up or blank books for the school library • Pen pals • Gifts “If you give writers only one thing, give them an audience.” Peter Elbow

The Writing Process