Traditional writing activities

Controlled sentence construction

The focus of a language programme is on accuracy. The range of activity types is considerable, and
typical approaches include

• providing a model sentence and asking students to construct a parallel sentence with different
lexical items
• inserting a missing grammatical form
• composing sentences from tabular information, with a model provided
• joining sentences to make a short paragraph, inserting supplied conjunctions (but, and, however,
because, although . . . ).

Free composition

a ‘free writing’ task requires learners to ‘create’ an essay on a given topic, often as part of a
language examination. Sometimes students are simply invited to write on a personal topic – their
hobbies, what they did on holiday, interesting experiences and the like. Other materials provide a
reading passage as a stimulus for a piece of writing on a parallel topic, usually with comprehension
questions interspersed between the two activities.

The ‘homework’ function

Particularly in general coursebooks (as distinct from materials devoted specifically to the skill of
writing), it is quite common to find writing tasks ‘bunched’ at the end of a unit, either as
supplementary work in class or set for homework and returned to the teacher for later correction.
Characteristics of traditional writing activities:

• There is an emphasis on accuracy.

• The focus of attention is the finished product, whether a sentence or a

whole composition.

• The teacher’s role is to be judge of the finished work.

In the 1970’s many English L2 language programme writing classes were, in reality, grammar courses.
Students copied sentences or short pieces of discourse, making discrete changes in person or tense.

‘learning to write’

an apprentice writer is learning how to extend his or her textual knowledge, cognitive capacities,
and rhetorical skills in order to take on (usually prestigious) social roles, which require the
production of certain kinds of text

‘writing to learn’.

language learners are using the writing system to practice new language knowledge or are using
writing to demonstrate their knowledge in the context of assessment

One of the problems facing the writing instructor of EFL is the fact that all too often, learners’ main
experience of EFL writing has been in writing to learn and that they have had few opportunities to
extend their literacy in the target language.

Levels of writing

The two outer layers on figure 9.1 will certainly require consideration of both ‘cohesion’ – linking
devices – and ‘discourse coherence’ – the ways in which a text forms a thematic whole. Such criteria
are now well-established in the teaching of writing. Typical organizational principles for materials
include paragraph structuring, particularly related to functional categories, and the use of a
range of linking devices. Sentence-level and grammar practice is not omitted but, as the diagram
suggests, is set in the context of a longer and purposeful stretch of language. Writing, then, is seen as
primarily message-oriented, so a communicative view of language is a necessary foundation.
Functional categories include:

sequencing; chronological order

comparison and contrast
classification
cause and effect
description of objects and of processes
definitions
writing instructions
predicting and speculating
expressing opinion
expressing reasons
discursive essays
writing narratives, for example, of events

Nunan (1999: ch. 10) makes a number of proposals for developing what he terms ‘discourse writing’.
Linking devices covered include the various connectives associated with these functional categories,
and the notions of lexical cohesion, referencing using pronouns and the article system, ellipsis and
substitution.
The techniques used are many, and you will notice that they usually require learners to understand
the overall purpose of a piece of writing, not just the immediate sentence-bound grammatical
context. Here is a small selection of some of the possibilities:

• Providing a text to read as a model for a particular function.

• Answering questions on a text, then using the n-verbal information in many forms. This may be a
simple visual, such as a picture or a drawing; or a table, a graph, a diagram. Alternatively, the overall
structure of a text may be represented visually, as an ‘information-structure’ diagram. The last of
these is particularly common with classifications.
• Selecting appropriate connectives in a paragraph.
• (Re)constructing a paragraph from sentences given in the wrong order, or a whole text from a setof
jumbled paragraphs. This technique is usually referred to as ‘unscrambling’.
• Paragraph or story completion, which can be done by adding not only an ending, but also a
beginning or a middle section.
• Parallel writing.
• Choosing an appropriate title for a piece of writing, such as a newspaper article.
• Working on identifying and creating ‘topic sentences’ as the basis for developing paragraphs.

Audience

Our students can write

 to other students: invitations, instructions, directions

 for the whole class: a magazine, poster information, a cookbook with Recipes from different
countries
 for new students: information on the school and its locality
 to the teacher (not only for the teacher) about themselves and the teacher Can reply or
indeed initiate
  for themselves: lists, notes, diaries
 to penfriends
 to other people in the school: asking about interests and hobbies, conducting a survey
 to people and organizations outside the school: writing for information, Answering
advertisements
 If the school has access to a network of computers, many of these activities can be carried
out electronically as well.

The Writing Process

The writer’s perspective

Writers, it seems, do a great number of things before they end up with the final version – the
‘finished product’. For instance, they jot down ideas, put them in order, make a plan, reject it and
start again, add more ideas as they go along, change words, rephrase bits, move sections around,
review parts of what they have written, cross things out, check through the final version, write tidy
notes, write on odd pieces of paper as thoughts occur to them, write directly into a typewriter or a
word processor İf they are lucky enough to have one, look at the blank page for a long time, Change
pens, refer back to something they have read –

developments in related disciplines have led to promoting ‘process-orientated writing instruction’

in recent years:
. . . process-oriented pedagogies are marked by the following features, among
others:
• Discovery and articulation of writers’ authorial voices.
• Free writing, journaling, and private writing activities designed to enhance writer’s fluency,
creativity, and exploration of source texts.
• Localization of writing process and texts in authentic contexts to develop the writer’s sense of
audience and reader expectations.
• Constructing purposeful tasks that engage writers and promote their investment in creating
meaningful texts.
• Modelling and monitoring of invention, prewriting, and revision strategies.
• Recursive practices such as multidrafting, which demonstrate that writing for an authentic audience
is often a nonlinear, multi-dimensional process.
• Formative feedback from real readers in peer response workshops, student teacher conferences,
collaborative writing projects, and so on.
• Provision of meaningful content for writing tasks, with a corresponding emphasis on representing
ideas, rather than solely on producing grammatically accurate prose.

Hedge (2005) provides a comprehensive range of process-oriented classroom procedures teachers

can make use of. Communicating, Composing, Crafting and Improving.
Communicating represents the first stage of the writing process. The activities suggested in this
section are designed to help learners become used to writing as self-discovery and as a means of
communication. Examples of activities include producing a class magazine, exchanging letters with
teachers and peers and writing a newscast, all of which require the learners to write
within a specific genre and context to a specific real-life audience.
Composing is the second stage in which the learners experience the mental processes of gathering
and organizing ideas before actually starting toaudience Activities in this stage include making mind
maps, using a diagram of ideas, brainstorming and cubing (i.e. considering a topic from six different
points of views, such as description, comparison and application).

Crafting is the third stage, in which learners are guided to produce well-structured written work.
Activities involve writing a book review, a description of a person, a biography and an essay with
contrast and comparison. In these activities the learners are provided with opportunities to
raise their awareness of how written language (e.g. paragraph, discourse) is organized in different
kinds of texts.
The final stage is Improving, when the teacher and the class collaborate to improve the quality of
writing through awareness activities such as conferencing on plans and drafts, peer editing,
reformulation and checking accuracy.

Writing in the Classroom

The classroom can provide an environment for writing at each of the three main stages of (1)
gathering ideas: pre-writing and planning, (2) working on drafts, and (3) preparing the final version.

The primary means by which this can be done is Establishing a collaborative, interactive framework
where learners work together on their writing in a ‘workshop’ atmosphere. A few typical examples,
all involving oral skills, must suffice:
• ‘Brainstorming’ a topic by talking with other students to collect ideas.
• Co-operating at the planning stage, sometimes in pairs/groups, before agreeing a plan for the class
to work from.
• ‘Jigsaw’ writing, for example, using a picture stimulus for different sections of the class to create a
different part of the story
• Editing another student’s draft.
• Preparing interview questions, perhaps for a collaborative project

Correcting written work

the influential factors on feedback effectiveness include

• Learners’ proficiency
• Manner of feedback (e.g. direct correction, indirect indication of problems for the learners to
solve).
 Kinds of errors (e.g. treatable ones that the learners can overcome, untreatable errors)
• Timing of feedback (i.e. formative feedback during the writing process, post-feedback on errors)

Process considerations suggest the usefulness of intervention at all stages of writing, not just at the
end. Harmer (2001b: 261–2) regards the teacher as ‘motivator’ and ‘feedback provider’. The
feedback given to students is in this view both ‘formative’ – concerned with a developmental process
– as well as ‘summative’ – the evaluation of the end-product. Secondly, this feedback, whether
summative or formative, takes place at a number of different levels of writing, and sentence
grammar is not the only subject of attention. We need to take into account the appropriateness of
the writing to its purpose and intended audience as well as topic and content criteria. Several
marking schemes along these lines are now used by individual teachers, in materials, and by some
examination boards. These schemes typically involve
Communicative quality
Logical organization
Layout and presentation
Grammar
Vocabulary
Handwriting, punctuation and spelling

Ferris emphasizes the importance of principled feedback. For example, she proposes feedback
guidelines that remind teachers to
• Prioritize
• Treat students as individuals
• Be encouraging
• Be clear and helpful
• Avoid imposing their own ideas on student writers, leaving the final decisions in the hands of the
writer.

A distinction should be made between ‘mistakes’, when learners are not using correctly the language
they already know, and errors, which, as we have seen, are largely the outcome of a learner’s
developing competence. Mistakes may require direct feedback and remedial treatment, and largely
relate to language points already covered; errors may be more appropriately used for the planning of
future work.

Ferris (2003: 122) provides an example of process-orientated feedback procedures:

1st draft – in class peer response
2nd draft – expert feedback
3rd draft – focused editing workshop
Final draft – careful editing and proof-reading
Grade and final comments.