WRITING TECHNIQUES

Evoke their senses

Writing criteria
Creative writing

Logical writing

Senses
Snowballing effect mneumonic approach

To trigger ideas

Expansion
Lexical Communication grammar

How to tackle your students to start writing? Students are easier to tackle if they like the teacher. Students are easier to tackle if they know what they are doing. Dont just ask them to write but guide them to write. Continuous motivation will make students think positive. Give a lot of essay examples and ample exercises for them to improve.

Definition of Writing.
There are three basic definitions of writing according to Nunan, (2003).

1. Perceives writing as both a physical and mental act. 2. Discerns writing with a dual purpose, which is to express and impress. 3. Recognizes writing as both a process and a product.

Four Principles for Teaching Writing.

1. 2. 3. 4. Understand your students needs for writing. Make arrangements for students to write. Provide constructive and meaningful feedback Explain to your students how their writing will be evaluated. For example rubrics.

Writing techniques.
The genre of writing. Question 1: using language of description. Question 2: Describing and focusing on reasoning. Question 3: Language of fiction. You have to substantiate your choice with logical writings.

i. ii. iii.

Invention Techniques. 1. Brainstorming. Done individually or pairs. List down all the ideas or topics students can think of. From the ideas/topics listed they can choose the most interesting topics or proficiently about.

2.Word Mapping
i. visual form of brainstorming Ii. Students create word maps from related ideas or words Iii. Draw relationships with a series of boxes, circles and arrows.

3.Quick-writing.
i. ii. iii. Begin with a topic Write rapidly about it with a time limit about 10/15 minutes. Keep writing without stopping and just let the ideas and words come out without concern for spelling, grammar, punctuation etc.

The problems in teaching writing.

Writing is the most difficult task. Individual attention is not given. No proper planning. Time constraints. Model answers are not given sufficiently. Lack of writing exercises. Written exercises too difficult. The written task is of high standard and hard for the pupils.

Teachers role in tackling problems in teaching writing.

The teacher as inquirer. Teacher must know why the pupils do something right or wrong. The teacher as creator. Create a positive, caring, supportive, secure, tolerant of errors etc. Assign group work, select purposeful and relevant materials. The teacher as observer. By listening and observing, teachers uncover students interests, strengths, limitations, needs and feelings. The teacher as facilitator. The teacher offers more meaningful role by supporting, encouraging the students enthusiasm to learn. Here, the teacher interacts, teaches, refocuses, questions clarifies, supports etc.

 Feed your pupils with lots of vocabulary lists. The more vocabulary they master, the more good chance they can improve on their writing skills. Explain your students to fulfill the task given. They must know very well at least the four most important grammar parts, as in Articles, prepositions, conjunctions and pronouns. Explain to the pupils that the stimulus is much more important than the words given.

How to prepare/teach pupils for paper 2.

What is needed to prepare pupils for writing?

Supplementary activities such as story telling, songs, poem reciting etc. Through story telling students will get the chance to start to talk in L2 without thinking of making mistakes as the memorized the text. Tis will trigger their interest. Grammar parts can be taught through songs and music. Give them songs so that they can have the confidence in the language.

The problems in writing.

Direct translation. Why? Limited and incorrect use of vocabulary. Grammar mistakes. Spelling or punctuation errors. Chunking of words. Good writing but no relevancy.

Question 1
The writing criteria of question 1. Making a report Must be factual Must be true Answers must be at sentence level Dont make own interpretations. Quality writing. Use the expressions creatively. Must be relevant to the assessment objectives specified.

The writing criteria of question 2.

mostly every items has five sets of information. Dont count the number of reasons to get good marks. The most important is the quality and reasoning. It is important to give reasoning to substantiate the facts/support decision or choice using correct tense or structure. Students must have the ability to transfer information accurately and appropriately. Use variation of sentences. Use simple and compound sentences with correct grammar, punctuation and spelling.

The writing criteria of question 3

Write a story using the given pictures and words as stimulus. Use a variety of sentence structures such as simple, compound and complex sentences to express ideas. Express ideas creatively. Use the pupils experience and imagination to create good stories. For example A visit To The Bird Park. Pupils must construct a grammatically correct sentence.

The do(s) in Question 1.

Concentrate on teaching present continuous tense as they are reporting the actual scene. Just write what they see in the picture. No necessity to follow the sequence. Emphasized on grammar as the key here is grammatically correct. Must know the task as the task here is, all sentences constructed grammatically correct.

The donT(s) in QuesTion 1

Dont personalized the sentences. Dont write more than 5 sentences. Dont write what is not seen in the picture. Dont predict or assumed. Dont just look at grammatical aspect only but also the irrelevancy aspect. Dont teach the high achievers to write just simple sentences but variety of sentences. Dont start with a pronoun.

The Do(s) in Question 2.

Emphasize on spelling and punctuation in 2a. Take extra precaution with the pronouns. Choices must be made. Eg: I would choose stamp collecting because.. Give reasoning to support your choice. Know your choice well. It would be better if you have the background knowledge of your choice. Compare and contrast Reasons must be well organized, relevant and clearly conveyed.

The donT(s) in QuesTion 2.

Dont choose what you like but what you know the most. If possible, avoid using connectors. Dont count the numbers of reasons to get marks. Dont write more than one choice(s). Dont write too long. The more you write, the more errors you make.

The do(s) in Question 3.

Add new words and interesting expressions correctly in context. Emphasized on the flow of the language and presentation of ideas. Use variety of sentences. Coherence of each sentence. Well organized ideas are considered as a strength.

The donT(s) in QuesTion 3.

Dont change the tense as it may distort the overall idea or meaning. Dont use repetition of ideas as they are considered as weakness. Dont write too long as quality overwrites quantity. Dont use redundant words such as, She went back home.

Task
Get into 10 groups consist of 5/6 in a group. Each group must produce 1 set each(Ques. 1, 2 and 3) of their choice of questions You must write the answers for A score.(eg. Ques. 1 - 9/10 marks). Prepare within 30 minutes.

List of topics for ques 1.

Fishing Night market At the canteen Gardening A visit to Kuala Lumpur Favourite pastime Classroom situation Camping Barber shop Family dinner

Suggested topics for Ques 2

Buildings Occupations Hobby Society A visit Food Musical instruments

Suggested topics for Question 3 A visit Sports day At the market Gotong-royong at school Scuba diving at holiday resort Holiday at the National Park Prize Giving Day