Planning your writing

1. Planning your writing A guide

2. Lesson Objective By the end of lesson you will be aware of different methods that can be used to plan your writing.

3. What is planning? • Whenever you write anything you plan it first in your head. • Even when you are writing a text message, you think about what you would like to say and how you would like the message to come across. • Planning your writing is when you think about it in advance.

4. Why is it important to plan your writing? • There are many reasons why planning is important. It can help you to… • Record your ideas • Come up with new ideas • Organise your thoughts • Check that you have all the information you need

5. When planning your writing… • You should think about the three Ws • W - Why are you writing: the purpose • W - What situation you are writing for: the context • W - Who you are writing to: the audience

6. How to plan your writing • There are a number of different ways to plan your text. • You may choose to use a… • Bulleted list • Spider diagram/mind map • Flowchart Remember: a text can be any piece of writing e.g. a letter, an advert, a report, an article etc.

7. Bulleted List This is where you make a simple list of all of the points you would like to include in your piece of writing. You might then want to number your points to show the order that you’d like them to appear in.

8. Spider diagram/mind map • This is where you put the subject of your text in the centre and the things you want to talk about as branches coming off it. This method is particularly useful for recording your initial ideas. You may then want to use a bulleted list or a flowchart as the second stage of planning to put your ideas into order.

9. Flowchart • A flowchart is a diagram that shows a sequence of events. • You can plan your writing step by step using this method. You don’t just have to stick to using rectangles or squares. Use different shapes and pictures if it helps you to develop your ideas.

10. Sticky Notes • This is when you write your ideas on sticky notes. This method is particularly useful for recording your initial ideas as you can move the sticky notes around to arrange the structure of your writing. It is also useful when working as a group as you can each write your individual ideas then bring them together by combining all of your sticky notes on one sheet.

11. The writing process cards Plan = 7 Draft=4 Edit=4 Proof Read = 4 Final Copy = 3