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Writing Skill
Definition:
"Writing" is the process of using symbols (letters of
the alphabet,
punctuation and spaces) to
communicate thoughts and ideas in a readable
form.
To write clearly it is essential to understand the
basic system of a language. In English this includes
knowledge of grammar, punctuation and sentence
structure. Vocabulary is also necessary, as is
correct spelling and formatting.
The exercises have been devised to motivate the
students to use and
improve their writing skills.
Most of them are done as pair work or group work,
which facilitates communication between the
students. The exercises usually consist of two or
three parts, so that they are not
too long and
boring.
The students must do the first part well in order to
accomplish the second. Most important of all, they
require the
students to exercise imagination.
The exercises require the students to
establish
relationships between concepts, ideas, and words
outside of normal use, which forces them to review
their primary use.
This is a further semantic step. All these reasons
can be summed up in one: the
exercises are an
imaginative approach to teaching varieties of
writing.
Writing Skill:
Writing is the fourth language skill we may acquire
in
our native language. As with speaking, it is a
productive, or active
skill, as it requires us to use
our hands and our brains to produce the
written
symbols that represent our spoken language.
Along with reading,
it is one of the two artificial
language skills, as not all natural
spoken
languages have a writing system:
Stages of writing:
1-Planning.
2-Drafting.
3-Editing.
4-Revising.
5-Proofreading.
(Output productive critical skill)
Goal:
Learners use drafts to introduce, describe,
compare, contrast and conclude topics. They
write a
paragraphs, stories, letters, e-mails,
postcards, Faxes.
Strategy:
1-Pre-writing
Pre-writing tasks review and build students'
knowledge of relevant vocabulary, relevant grammar
points and, most importantly, students'
background
knowledge, since that is what really generates
thoughtful and interesting written work
In groups, learners study the title, pictures or
the
situation to discover the purpose of the writing task.
2-During writing:
1-I give prompts, chunks.
2-Learners plan and set the central idea in a draft.
3-They write the starting sentence.
4-They
develop the idea through transitional
expressions.
5-They transit to another idea.
6-They organize information.
7-They conclude the topic.
8-They feedback grammar,punctuation and spelling.
5-They Rewrite the subject.
3-Post writing extension:
3 groups present their writings.
The fourth group evaluate each work pf the other 3
groups.I monitor, guide, check and encourage.
Feedback
There are other ways of teaching writing like the
following:
1-The teacher can ask learners to write a story ending
with so and so....
Ex: ( ............and this was the end of the thief.).
(.......and this was the end of the film, play, match.)
2-The teacher can ask learners to write a
composition about :
What would you do if you were a ..........................
3-In a novel lesson, the learners can change
the events into pictures and write under each picture
the main sentence about its event.
4- Students can write about their daily routine they do
every day.
5- Learners can analyze any topic or story through
using expressions of sequence like:
First....,secondly,.....,Next,.....,Later,.............,
Then,.....Finally,..................At the end, .......
6-An actual example I saw: In an English school,
I saw the British teacher
drawing the letters of the
word " Christmas ' in the form of a circle on
the
carpet on the ground.
Learners were asked to write verses from the
Holy
Book about the birth of the lord Jesus that begin with
each letter of the word Christmas. What was that?
It was writing through composing and critical thinking.
2-Writing sub-skills
The learner must:
Know
the orthography and the writing system of the
second language.
Use
appropriate word order.
Use
good standard grammar
Know
how to express a particular meaning using
different grammatical forms.
Benefit
from the use of synonyms, antonyms, and
other literary devices.
Use
cohesive devices.
Use
writing conventions.
Use
writing strategies such as writing drafts or
asking for peer correction.
Be
able to structure a text into paragraphs and
use devices such as thesis
statement.
Be
able to write purposefully and meaningfully.
Be able to produce writing at efficient rate,
especially during examinations.
know organizational and editing skills in writing.
3-Writing Activities
1-Writing a letter, a letter reply, fax or an e mail.
2-Writing a paragraph.
3-Writing a story.
4-Writing a lingo text or a mobile text"SMS".
5- Writing an essay or a report.
5-Fill in the spaces or fill in the schedule.
6-Read and do an outline as a kind of synthesis.
7-Write the similes and differences between so and
so as a kind of analysis.
8-Imagine and write the missing parts.
9-Write a feedback or a closure.
A Point of view story?
It is a
matter of choice:
So how do you choose among first person, close
third person, and distant third?
Your choice will
depend on the total effect you want your story to
have.
Some guidelines:
If you want to write the entire story in individual,
quirky language, choose first person.
If you want
your POV character to indulge in
lengthy ruminations, choose first person.
If you want
your reader to feel high identification
with your POV character, choose first
person or
close third.
If you want
to describe your character from the
outside as well as give her thoughts,
choose
either close or distant third person.
If you want
to intersperse the author’s opinions
with the character’s, choose distant third.
If you want low identification between reader and
character, perhaps because you’re going to make
a fool of your character, choose distant third.
