WRITING STRATEGIES

RECOMMENDED WRITING STRATEGIES

Pre-Writing Strategies:

Ø  Activating prior knowledge

Ø  Analyzing the required task

Ø  Brainstorming

Ø  Free writing

Ø  Mulling over ideas

Ø  Engaging in ideas with teachers or peers

Ø  Generating a purpose

Ø  Considering a form

Ø  Identifying an audience and its traits

Ø  Consulting resources

Ø  Gathering information

Ø  Outlining

Ø  Webbing

Ø  Clustering

Ø  Using graphic organizers

Ø  Rehearsing

Drafting Strategies:

Ø  Writing thoughts as quickly as possible without concern for correctness until the final stages of the process

Ø  Ignoring spelling, usage, or other proofreading or revision problems until the final stages of the process

Ø  Watching the teacher monitor the process of the drafting via the chalkboard, a flipchart, or an overhead projector

Ø  Engaging in guided writing in which the teacher leads the students through a directed writing activity

Ø  Using pre-writing and other strategies when writer’s block occurs

Ø  Realizing that pauses are a natural part of the drafting process

Ø  Consulting the teacher when necessary

Ø  Using the computer to write the first draft

Revision Strategies:

Ø  Revising the piece using their own individual criteria

Ø  Revising the piece according to curricular requirements

Ø  Reading the piece silently aloud

Ø  Re-seeing the piece from another perspective (i.e. a different audience, point of view, genre/form)

Ø  Adding, deleting, changing words and phrases, sentences, ideas, and paragraphs

Ø  Drawing lines, crossing out, inserting carets and arrows

Ø  Cutting, pasting, stapling, using post-it notes

Ø  Using computer commands to help revise the piece

Ø  Engaging in peer and/or teacher conferences, after first revisiting the piece personally

Ø  Checking rubrics to determine if the piece meets established criteria

Ø  Utilizing ideas from mini-lessons

Ø  Engaging in meta cognitive think-aloud, which illustrate thinking during the revision process

Ø  Anticipating and answering the readers’ questions

Proofreading Strategies:

Ø  Focusing on one or two personal areas of proofreading goals

Ø  Reading the paper silently and aloud

Ø  Using commercial, teacher-generated, or student-generated checklists

Ø  Ascertaining whether or not the relevant rubric includes specific required proofreading areas

Ø  Consulting with editing partners, peer editing groups, and/or the teacher

Ø  Ensuring that papers show command of the appropriate conventions of paragraph structure, sentence construction, grammar, usage, punctuation, capitalization, and spelling

Ø  Using the computer to make changes/corrections

Publishing:

Ø  Classmates/peers

Ø  Parents and other relatives

Ø  Other students and teachers

Ø  Displays in classrooms, libraries, hallways, offices

Ø  School and district publications

Ø  Local newspapers

Ø  Magazines

Ø  Other professional publications

Ø  Local and national contests

Ø  Elementary school students

Ø  Pen pals

Ø  Government officials