Work -on Writing

CHAPTER 6

“Worked-on Writing

What is written without effort is read without pleasure.

Samuel Johnson

Jeremy Harmer describes ‘Worked-on’ writing  into:

·         Process and Genre

·         Generating Ideas

·         Analyzing Genres

·         Making a Plan

·         Examples of ‘Worked-on’ Writing sequences

·         Project Work

·         Writing for Exam

v  Process and genre

Given that writing is a process and that what we write is often heavily influenced by the constraints of genres, then this element have to be present in learning activities. Building the writing habit is extremely important, but without looking at example of different genre to see how they are constructed, and without becoming used to drafting and re-drafting students are unlikely to become effective writers.

The writer tended these two ways of looking at writing were mutually exclusive – that is, teachers either got students to look at written genre or had them concentrate on the writing process itself. In the same way we may well get students to concentrate on writing process – drafting and re-drafting for example – when they are writing within genre.

The activities in this chapter are most often a blend of genre study and process sequences. Sometimes they are more heavily weighted toward the one, sometime to the other. But what they have in common is that students are asked to think carefully about what they are writing, and then think about and evaluate what they have written. If over a period of time, these activities are incorporated in a program me that also includes sentence and paragraph writing (Chapter 4) and ‘habit building’ writing (Chapter5), there is a good chance that the students will emerge as competent writers. Furthermore, these activities frequently stimulate genuinely purposeful spoken communication.

Three key first stage in ‘process + genre’ writing lesson are the generation of ideas, the study of individual genres, and the planning of texts.

v  Generating Ideas

Often, even the most fluent writer in their own language need time to generate ideas and to plan what they are going to write. Students are no different. If we are going to ask them to write anything more substantial than instant writing, we have to give them opportunities to think, especially formal writing task such as narrative writing, discursive writing, report writing, formal letter writing or the design of publicity materials.

The following examples show ways of generating ideas and noting down ideas:

Ø  The buzz group

The buzz group - by far is the most common collaborative model in the buzz group. This is where students “buzz” or generate ideas, reactions, cues, or opinions quickly and informally.

Buzz group can be created instantly and they frequently lead to successful idea generating which the individual student can then carry forward into their own planning(p.87).

Ø  Individuals, pairs, and groups – a more elaborate version of the buzz group is called ‘pyramid planning’ by Tricia Hedge. Here students think about the topic individually and the discuss it in pairs and the in groups. Imagine that students are going to write a composition about how to cope with the phobias. They first read about a powerful description of someone copying with a phobia. The teacher then sees if anyone want to tell the class about how they or someone they know deal with phobias. Students then ask to work individually to think about what they composition might include on this topic. The teacher might go around helping them with suggestion about.(p.87).

Students are now put in pairs to discuss what they think need to be included in their composition. When they have time to talk, groups are form with each member of the group coming from a different pairs. The result is that ideas by possibilities are shared among the greatest number of students.By the time the teacher ask the students to report back on their ideas, everyone have has opportunity not only make suggestion but also to have their imaginations stimulated by the suggestions of others.

Ø  Whole group discussion – sometimes students need help not only with having ideas and thinking of a topic they might want to write about, but also with thinking of appropriate vocabulary.

 In Aosta, Italy, Francesca Acanfore wanted her students to write Haiku and other kinds of poetry. First, She allow them to suggest theme that they wanted to write about. She then asked students to give her any words they knew which could be used in that topic area. These were transferred to the board according to their grammatical classes (verbs, nouns, adjectives, adverb, etc). The student now had the raw material for their  poetry.

Say a word And my hearth thunders I’m completelyconfused (Stania, 18)

Had I one night without you I’d touch emptyness ….. I refuse that though (Alesandra, 20)

From Haiku ed alter poesie edited by Francesca Albarosa Acanfora

This kind of whole group preparation-discussing issues, eliciting and sharing useful word and grammar, getting students engaged in the activity – need not be confined to poetry. The same procedure could be followed when preparing to design advertisement or stories.

Ø  Note Making – Students benefit greatly from thinking about how best to note down the ideas they come up with.

Often, when we start to generate ideas we write down words and phrases in a random way. Then we making connection between them, we start to see pattern emerging and we can then organized our thoughts in to sub-topics and catagories. This is a classic note-making sequences.

Some people, for example, prefer a spaghetti approach:

It’s fun                                                     People need to relax                        Help people to understand each other                                     Provides jobs Good idea to get away from work                                            Good for local economies People experience difference culture

                                                          Spaghetty note making for why tourism is so popular

Another very way of making preparation notes is often referred to a Spidergrams or mind map. In this model students start with a topic at the center and then generate a web of ideas from that.

Mountains                     Off the beaten track Backpacking Holiday   Surfing            Pool                                                           Trekking                     Sea                   Swimming                                        Luxury   Camping   Nighlife          Cubbing Sigh seeing holiday                                                                                          Culture                      Tent                                  Boating                                           Museum Campsite                                                           Galleries                                                              Monument

Spidergram for holidays

Spidergrams work allows students to extent their ideas in any direction they want and encouraging them to group theme and sub theme together.

Some students, may prefer to make a list of ordered Points:

Are holidays good for you? 1.           Introduction a.  More and more people go on holiday b.  Holiday are cheaper than ever c.  People think they have a right to holiday 2.            Why we like holidays a.  a chance to get away from it all b.  a chance to get to know other people/cultures c.   Physical exercise/fresh air 3.            Holiday problems a.   People often sunbathe, eat and drink too much b.   Travelling can be stressful

Ø  For and Against – another way of generating ideas, especially where the writing is to be discursive or will consider different arguments, is to generate for and against notes. The teacher can then divide  the board the board into two column, a’ for’ and ‘against’ column and representative from each group come up and write their points on the correct side of the board.

The important thing with all this kinds of activities is that they make student think, and provide them with the ideas and words they will need to complete their written tasks.

v  Analyzing Genres

Where students are writing within a recognized genre, they will benefit from first analyzing that genre before writing within it – although we do not want them to be straitjacketed by it.

Teacher want the students to analyse an article or a review to find out what the writer is trying to achieve. If te students are looking at advertisements, they can analyse some examples of written advertisements, using a list of questions like these:

Analysing Advertisements

Answer the following questions about the advertisement you are reading:

Meaning

What is being advertised?

Who do you think the advertisement is aimed at?

What’s the main message about the product or service?

What captions are included in the advertisement/ How effective are they?

What visual material does the advertisement use/ How effective is it?

Is this a good advertisement? Why?

(LANGUAGE) CONSTRUCTION

What vocabulary describes the product or service?

What form do the captions take?

What verb tenses are used? Why?

What is the structure of the advertisement (e.g. caption, description, story, background, etc.)

Genres analyser for advertisements.

v  Making a Plan

Generating ideas and analyzing genres are all part of the planning process but they are, different from the act of making a plan itself. One of the first decisions that the students have to make is who they are writing for real or invented their purpose is. Teacher can help the students think about how ideas group round themes in the following ways:

v  For and against – we have seen how students can group opinions in ‘for’ and ‘again’ columns when they are planning a discursive essay. Having decided the order of arguments on either side by then need to decide which order ‘for’ and ‘against’ will be presented in, and how the composition can start, and how it will end.

v  Board fill – when the students have worked together to generate ideas, we can ask them to write them with on the board. We end up with something like a spidergram but we can focus all our attention on how they group together.

v  Main Idea Magnets -  when students have had a chance to think of ideas, they can decide on four main point which are then written up on the board. At the end of the activity students can decide what to do with any ideas at the end up in the ‘extras’ column. The ideas can be jettisoned without having too great an impact on the whole.

v  Paper in a hat – students can be given a topic and asked, individually, to think of one ideas and write it in a piece of paper. As with all plans, however things can change during the drafting and editing process. Having seen what the result of  a plan look like, the students might well start the piece of writing completely differently. The end might look better at the beginning! The ‘for’ and ‘againts’ arguments might be reversed. That is all part of the writing process.

v  Examples of ‘worked-on’ writing sequences

The following examples show a range of ‘genre + process’ activities. One element of writing process that does not receive much attention here is editing or self  evaluating, a crucial factor of the process cycle (see process wheel on page 6).

Example 1:

Writing within genre – ‘guide book’ (elementary, pre-intermediate)

Imitation guide book:

Places – buildings, parks, rivers, bridges, museums, etc.

History – history of place, buildings

Food – typical food

Culture – music, dances, festivals.

Things to buy – lleather, siver, pottery, etc.

Entertainment – restaurants, night clubs, theatre, music, etc.

Climate – hot, cool, windy, etc.

In groups, students  now decide on one or two fact for each of the catagories mentioned above. All they have to do is write a sentence or two about it, using as much language as they can muster, e.g.

The hermitage Museum is an important building in the St Peterburg or The Miramar restaurant is a good rrestourant for fish in Port D’Alcudia etc

The students start to organize their own ‘guide book’, e.g.

Please to visit: Buckingham Palace (The queen lives there) The south bank (concert hall, art galleries, and restaurant) Hyde Park etc.

Example2: Writing for different audiences (intermediate and above).

Students might be ask study the following newspaper photograph and article about a snowstorm that created chaos one night in Britain:

Big freeze brings travel chaos (see P. 95). Then the teacher ask the students to look at the following written task:

a. Write an e-mail from a truck driver who has only just got home after being stranded for 24 hours. He si e-mailing his friend. b. Write an e-mail from the same driver to  his employer explaining why he has not been able to make a scheduled delivery. c. Write a text message from a driver to his girlfriends/wife when he become stuck in the storm. d. Write the report by the transport authority about the extent of the problem and what need to be done to prevent it happening in the future.

Example 3: Research and writing – ‘biography’ (intermediate and above)

This activity sequences show how a mix of genre and process work can enable students to write short biographies of people who interest them.

Name	1	2	3
Date of birth
Nationality
What was or is special about her/him?
Who (if anyone) was or is he/she associated with?
What were or have the main events in her/his life?
Has her/his career ended, and if yes, how?
Are they still alive, and if not, when did she/he die?

Example 4: extended writing – ‘personal narrative’ (upper intermediate and above).

The genre they start with is the ‘narrative essay’ which is a useful stage towards the writing of discursive essays. The whole procedure has seven distinct stages:

ü  Stage 1 – in pairs or groups, students talk about any vivid memories from their childhood.

ü  Stage 2 – students talk about two types of freewriting.

ü  Stage 3 – the teacher put a cluster diagram.

ü  Stage 4 – the students make their own diagrams about their own childhood memories.

ü  Stage 5 – the students read three more finished essays written by former students.

ü  Stage 6 – the students work through a handout which ask them to look back at their first draft and ask them questions.

ü  Stage 7 – the class then discuss everything they have been doing and they have seen, clearing up any questions about narrative construction and style.

Example 5: Writing within a genre – ‘advertising leaflets’ (upper intermediate and above).

When students design advertisements, posters, and leaflets they need to be well- informed about the best ways of doing their work. (see p. 101)

v  Project Work

We use the word project to describe pieces of work which extend over a period of time, and where the final product may be the result of considerable research.

Project procedure

However project are organized, they all share the same basic sequence:

• The choice/the briefing
• Idea/language generation
• Data gathering
• Planning
• Drafting and editing
• Final version
• Consutation/tutorial

v  Waiting for exams

Most public exams for students of English include a written element. One of the teacher’s most important roles will be to prepare students for the writing they will have to do in exams.

The most common types of exam writing:

o   Application letters and CVs

o   Articles, report, and review

o   Descriptions of pictures, paintings, or events

o   Discursive composition

o   Leaflet

o   Letter (informal and formal)

o   Narratives (often the first or last line is given)

o   Transactional letters

Preparing students for exam writing

Most test have their own special features and if we want our students to do as well asthey are capable of, they need to have familiarity with those specialities. Amog the things we need to offer students are the following:

• Model answers
• Reading instruction
• Generating ideas and plans
• Writing
• Revising
• Mock exams and practice papers

v  Conclusions

In this chapter we have:

Ø  Reminded ourselves of the importance of the written genre and the writing process in the teaching of writing.

Ø  Ideally, in activities where we intend to focus on the writing skill should combine attention to genres with a process approach to writing.

Ø  Looked at a number of ways that student can be encouraged to generate ideas for their writing.

Ø  Shown how genres analysis can help students during the planning process.

Ø  Described how the students’ attention can be drawn to the making of a specific plan.

Ø  Offered fife examples of writing sequences where students are encouraged to be creative, are ask to pay attention to genre, and where the writing process includes editing and evaluation.

Ø  Discussed project work – an extended version of genre – and process-centered writing.

Ø  Talked briefly about writing for exams, detailing some examination tasks and showing what teachers can do to help their students prepare for test activities.