LESSON 3

The Expressive Macro Skills – Writing

Writing is important because it’s used extensively in higher education and in the
workplace. If students don’t know how to express themselves in writing, they won’t be able
to communicate well with professors, employers, peers, or just about anyone else. Much of
professional communication is done in writing: proposals, memos, reports, applications,
preliminary interviews, e-mails, and more are part of the daily life of a college student or
successful graduate (Walsh, 2010)

From the four language skills, writing is classified along with speaking as one of the
productive skills, as it requires producing language rather than obtaining it. These two skills
are in many ways radically different. The differences lie in a variety of dimensions including
textual, features, socio-cultural norm, use pattern and cognitive cycle.

Writing in terms of communication context is somewhat different from speaking.

Speaking is often intended for face-to - face contact with the present audience,
while writing is often used by the authors to convey and communicate their
thoughts to the readers, who are simply separated by differences with time and space.
In other words, when people communicate verbally, they can use different types of prosodic
features including pitch, rhythm, pauses that allow listeners to get feedback. Those
speaking characteristics, on the other hand, do not occur in writing because the contact
meaning is generated by the words alone without direct interaction between the writer and
the reader. The differences between speaking and writing can also be seen from the
language characteristics. Permanence, production time, style, orthography, complexity,
vocabulary, and formality are some characteristics that differentiate written language from
spoken language (Brown: 1994)

Here is a list of the characteristics which distinguish written language from spoken
language as Brown has mentioned:
 Permanence: Oral language is transitory and must be processed in real time, while
writ-ten language is permanent and can be read and reread as often as one likes.
 Production time: Writers generally have more time to plan, review, and revise their
words before they are finalized, while speakers must plan, formulate and deliver their
utterances within a few moments if they are to maintain a conversation.
 Style: Distance between the writer and the reader in both time and space, which
eliminates much of the shared context that is present between speaker and listener
in ordinary face to-face contact thus necessities greater explicitness on the part of
the writer.
 Orthography: It carries limited amount of information compared to the richness of
devices available to speakers to enhance a message (e.g., stress, intonation, pitch,
volume, pausing, etc.).
 Complexity: Writing tends to have characteristics of longer clauses and more
subordinators, while spoken language tends to have shorter clauses connected by
coordinators, as well as more redundancy (e.g. repetition of nouns and verbs).
 Vocabulary: Written texts tend to contain a wider variety of words, and more lower
frequency words, than oral texts.
 Formality: Because of the social and cultural uses to which writing is ordinarily put,
writing tends to be more formal than speaking.

Writing can be defined by a series of contrasts (Nunan, 2013):

a. It is both a physical and a mental act. At the most basic level, writing is the
physical act of committing words or ideas to some medium, whether it is
hieroglyphics inked onto parchment or an email message typed into a computer.
 b. Its purpose is both to express and impress. The writer typically served two
masters: themselves, and their own desires to express an idea or feeling, and
readers also called the audience, who need to have ideas expressed in certain ways.
c. It is both a process and a product. The writer imagines, organizes, draft, edits,
reads, and rereads. This process of writing is often cyclical, and sometimes
disorderly.

Brown, (2001) defines written products as "the consequence of thinking, drafting, and
revising processes requiring advanced skills, skills that not every speaker naturally
possesses." That statement demonstrates that writing is not an easy and instant process.

A realistic attitude to writing needs to be based on the idea that writing is a skill and not
a natural gift. It is the ability like driving, typing, or cooking; and like any other ability, it can
be learned. Studies focused on the essence of innovation and on exposing creative
personalities much about attitudes and intellectual qualities that ignite accomplishments in
all fields including writing.

Moreover, research shows you become more relaxed and imaginative when you see
yourself clearly. When you have self-awareness, you make sound decisions, build stronger
relations and communicate better. When you know your strengths, you're going to want to
become more aware on how to draw on them.

According to Gardner, any human accomplishment is permeated by a kind of intellect

which is much more fluid and nuanced than it is generally believed. Such multiple
intelligences "are present in virtually every field of human activity", and not only in the
generally considered "intelligent" verbal and analytical practices.

The influential research that can help you build on your strengths is referred to as
multiple intelligence theory. It is multifaceted—a combination of many different capabilities,
some that are more pronounced than others in any given individual. It's important to
emphasize that everybody has some degree of intelligence in all these areas. Even if that
linguistic intelligence does not rank high, be confident you have linguistic knowledge, as
shown by your reading, speaking, and writing ability.

The different intelligences and the specific applications to writing associated with each
are listed below:

Intelligence Specific Applications to Writing

You typically have plenty to say.

Linguistic You easily grasp spelling, grammar, and punctuation
guidelines
You express clear relationships between ideas through
Logical- sound reasoning.
Mathematical You can fit ideas together in ways that make sense to
readers
You are comfortable experimenting with form.
Spatial You respond to visual representations of ideas when
planning (i.e. in flowcharts or other diagrams)
 You benefit from incorporating physical movement of some
sort into your writing processes (e.g. jogging your way
Bodily-Kinesthetic through a bout of writer’s block)
Changing environments and positions when composing
typically gets your creative juices flowing.
You find that music playing in the background stimulates
your writing processes.
Musical You are tuned into rhythms of language, with a good sense
of when syllables, words, sentences, and paragraphs are
flowing in ways that are pleasing.
You enjoy collaborative writing assignments.
Interpersonal You enjoy receiving feedback on your writing by
participating in conferences with teachers or peers.
You excel on assignments that ask you to explore personal
feelings or experiences.
Intrapersonal
You are adept at reflecting on writing processes and
products.
You draw inspiration from nature in preparation for or while
writing (e.g. walking in the woods or gazing at a sunset)
Naturalistic
You tend to be a close observer of your surroundings and,
therefore, are effective at description.

Figure 1 Multiple intelligence theory applied specifically to writing

The Purposes of Writing

For any writer the first question should be "Why am I writing?”, “What is my reason
for writing?” For many written contexts the immediate purpose of a person can be
completing an assignment or getting a good grade. All writers have goals in writing to
convey messages to the reader. No matter what type of writing a writer does, he / she
should have a specific, clear purpose. It can be achieved by using the right words and
correct structure of the sentences to express the intended meaning. But writing's long-
range purpose is to communicate with a given audience to successfully communicate to an
audience, understanding the purpose of writing will make you a better writer.

Purpose is why a person composes a specific piece of writing, or why focusing on

intent when you write lets a person know what form of writing to choose, how to focus and
arrange the writing, what kinds of facts to quote, how the writing style should be (either
formal or informal), and how much should be written.

According to Grenville, there are three purposes of writing: to entertain, to inform

and to persuade.
1. To entertain – Writing to entertain generally takes the form of imaginary or
creative writing. It means that the writer needs to use his/her creativity. It must
not make the readers laugh, but engage their feeling in some ways.
e.g. •fiction books •fantasy •mystery •comics / jokes •adventure •romance

Example: Someone had stolen my brand-new bike from the front porch. I had left
it there for only two minutes! Luckily, the thief left a clue. A trail of muddy
footprints led around the side of the house.

2. To inform – Writing to inform has purpose to tell the reader about something.
This kind of informative writing can focus on objects, places, procedures, and
events. It can be seen in newspaper and articles, scientific or business reports,
instructions or procedures, and essays for school and university.
 e.g. •documentaries •non-fiction books •history / science •news articles •recipes
•biographies

Example: When you visit areas where rattlesnakes live, wear boots to protect
your feet. Do not walk-through bushes where you can’t see the ground, and never
stick your hands under rocks or logs.

3. To persuade – The writer tries to convince the reader of something that a point
of view is valid by presenting the fact/data so that readers follow writer’s opinions
and act upon it.
e.g. Commercials •Billboards •Advertisements •Opinions •Reviews •Political Ads

Example: Everyone should recycle. Recycling is one of the best things we can do
for our planet. It makes less pollution. It also costs less money to recycle than to
make something new.

In conclusion, the purpose of writing is not only to express the ideas, feeling or
thought in written symbol but it has also specific purposes such as to entertain, to inform
and to persuade the readers.

Below is the graph containing the writer’s purpose in writing:

Figure 2 Author’s Purpose PIE

Audience
An audience is a group of readers who read a particular piece of writing. Writers
need to determine the audience to write effectively. This basic rule: think about who would
read your paper before and while you’re writing and modifying it to make your readers
understand it.
Writers determine their audience types by considering:
 who the readers are (age, sex, education, occupation, economic status, area of
residence, ethnicities, political/social/religious beliefs, etc.)
 what level of information these readers have about the subject (novice, general
reader, specialist, or expert); and
 what opinions, values, prejudices, and biases these readers already possess about
the subject.
Process of Writing

Writing entails hard work: time and effort are required. With their first attempt,
competent writers do not produce final texts; instead, they find that writing is a long
process, and sometimes painful, in which the final text emerges through successive drafts.
 Though there is no clear formula for good writing, most effective authors treat writing
as both a medium of communication and a process spanning several developmental stages.

Writing process means the steps and methods used to generate a finished piece of
writing. It is the means through which a writer composes text. Writing is not a linear
process; it is flexible, and students need to learn to move easily back and forth between
components of the writing process. Generally, the writing process can be broken into six
phases: pre-writing, drafting, revising, editing, proofreading, and publishing.

A. Pre-Writing
Prewriting is the first step in the writing process. If you take this step seriously, then
each move will be less difficult and time consuming.
Prewriting is the process of preparing and organizing details, so you can write about
your subject effectively. This step in the writing process involves defining your topic,
generating ideas about it, and organizing those ideas.
First define your purpose of writing, and then the audience you write for, to define your
topic. Next is that you are to generate ideas about your topic using a number of techniques
like free-writing, brainstorming, clustering and outlining. You are now ready to organize the
ideas in the order you want them to be written on.
 Free-writing
Free-writing is a method of exploring a topic by writing about it—or whatever else it
brings to mind— for an uninterrupted period of time and without concern for form or
correctness.
Begin by setting a time limit for yourself (5 or 10 minutes).
Then let your mind wander over your topic, writing down everything that
occurs to you. Don’t stop for anything; if necessary, write, “I can’t think of
what to write next” over and over until something else occurs to you. Use the
full time you allotted to write.
When the time is up, look at what you’ve written. You are sure to find much
that is unusable, irrelevant, or nonsensical. However, you will also find
important insights and ideas to build your paper on.
In your pre-blogging activities, such as writing lists, free-writing, and uploading your
videos, podcasts, or drawings, you can use online tools (e.g., KidPix or Crayola Art Studio).
 Here is an example of a student’s free-writing:

 Brainstorming/Mindmapping
Brainstorming is a prewriting technique in which the writer uses free
association to create a list of whatever words, phrases, or ideas come to mind on a
given topic. It can be done alone or in a group.
Brainstorming, which is the most immediate way to begin exploring a topic, is
also the most simple and familiar: Talk about it with your friends, your classmates,
and your professor. Brainstorming helps students recall what they know about a
topic. Mind mapping uses a diagram to link those points, ideas, and concepts.
Brainstorming and mind mapping can work effectively for you in three ways:
As you talk about your topic, you can hear your mind at work, articulating what
you think about the topic and what you most need to know about it.
You can also seek out those who know about your topic and talk with them,
listening carefully and taking notes.
You can find out what others want or need to know about your topic as
potential readers You can use online tools (such as bubbl.us, edistorm.com
Inspiration.com, and spiderscribe.net for activities.

 Clustering
Clustering is a prewriting technique that emphasizes the connections among
items on a brainstorming list. The topic is written in the middle of the page and has a
circle drawn around it. As details or ideas are generated, they are circled and then
 lines are drawn to connect them to related details or ideas. This process continues
until the topic has been fully explored. Variations of clustering are known as
mapping, webbing, and branching.
Clustering, also called mapping, is a way of building on the ideas generated
by freewriting or listing and organizing those ideas into a visual diagram or chart.
Like a more formal outline, a cluster diagram is especially helpful in understanding
and representing the relationships among ideas. The following steps will help you
create a cluster diagram:
Begin by writing down a topic or main idea in the middle of a blank piece of
paper and circle it.
In a ring around that main idea, write down what you see as the component
parts (or subtopics) of the main topic. Circle each and draw a line from it to the
main idea.
Think of any ideas, examples, facts, or other details relating to each subtopic.
Write each down near the related subtopic, circle it, and draw a line
connecting the new information to the subtopic.
Repeat this process until you exhaust your ideas about the topic. Some trails
may dead-end, but you will still have generated some extended trains of
thought to follow and many useful connections among ideas to explore in your
essay.

Here is an example of clustering:

 Outlining
Outlining, the most formal technique of organizing prewriting ideas, uses
numerals and letters to distinguish between major headings and subheadings of a
planned piece of writing.
Outlining allows you to create a strong, supported structure for your writing.
However formal or informal, an outline follows a hierarchy of large, complex ideas,
followed by smaller details, that support them.
Outlines typically follow a particular structure, but you are allowed to have
some flexibility with how you label your outline. You can use numbers or letters or
even bullets to label points. Remember that this is a prewriting technique and is
typically used to help you get started. Make it your own, and construct it to make
sense for you.
Start with your main ideas. This helps you know whether you are treating the
subject in a full and relevant manner. Then, generalizing about these main
ideas, formulate your thesis.
 Use a complete sentence to express your thesis and each main idea. This is
essential for expressing how different ideas connect to each other and how
each supports the thesis.
Fill in supporting ideas/examples/details and information after you have
written your thesis and main ideas. You can use phrases and sentence
fragments here.
Critique your finished outline. Check that it suggests your essay will make a
convincing, relevant argument. If you spot main ideas that need more support,
add evidence. If you spot irrelevant information, eliminate it. If logical
sequencing of ideas seems troubling, change it.

Here is an example of a student’s outline:

Advice to Parents:

How to Communicate with Your Teens

I. Introduction

Topic Sentence: Parents need to consider their words, tone, and body language when they talk to their teens.

II. Choose your words carefully.

A. Do not call people names.

1. My father called me immature.

2. Parents sometimes use words like “idiot.”

B. Do not use bad language.

C. Do not be disrespectful.

D. Do not monopolize the conversation.

E. Do not use the silent treatment.

III. Listen to your tone.

A. Wait until you have calmed down so you do not sound angry and tense.

B. Watch the volume of your voice.

1. Gigi’s father speaks softly.

2. Gigi’s father speaks reassuringly.

C. Taping a conversation would reveal tone.

IV. Observe your body language.

A. Notice your facial expression.

1. Are you glaring?

2. Are you full of rage?

B. Make eye contact.
C. Do not withdraw; if possible, give the person a hug or hold that person’s hand.

D. Physical abuse is never appropriate.

V. Conclusion
Parents who think about these three factors of communication will be able to avoid a lot of pain and heartache.

B. Drafting
Drafting is the second step of the writing process in which you develop a
complete first version of a piece of writing. You create a more coherent text during
the drafting stage of the writing and explore the subject, guided by intent, audience,
genre and content. Drafting lets you extend, explain and change your initial plans
and ideas and let you organize the material into a coherent sequence or flow of
knowledge. Drafting is an iterative process that includes redrafting and redrafting
text over and over again, and this process enhances your writing, becoming stronger,
clearer and more structured.
Drafting is highly personal just like other aspects of the writing process.
Among the most common are the following drafting techniques and variations of
these.
 Highly structured. The writer works from very complete prewriting notes,
changing little of the context or organization.
Loosely structured. The writer works from rough notes, experimenting with
ideas and organization during drafting.
Bridges. The writer begins with two or three main points or situations to be
covered and during drafting, concentrates on using supporting details to build
logical bridges between the points.
Quick draft. The writer works quickly, not stopping to refine ideas or rework
materials until the revising stages.
Slow draft. The writer works meticulously, carefully crafting one sentence or
paragraph at a time. Though revising is a continuous process in this method,
the writer may also rework the piece in its entirety when the draft is complete.

When you begin to draft your writing, you need to keep in mind five separate
writing techniques that will help your reader to understand your paper:

1. Thesis statement: At the end of your introduction, write a one-sentence

statement that is the basis for your entire paper. A good thesis statement lets the
reader know what your paper will cover. For example, you might write this thesis
statement: “There are four possible causes for alcoholism, yet not all
alcoholics drink for these reasons.” The paragraphs that follow should
support this statement, and each paragraph should focus on one of the possible
causes.
2. Topic sentences: Each paragraph should begin with a topic sentence that states
the main idea of that paragraph. Just like the thesis statement, the topic sentence
lets you know what the paragraph contains. For the first paragraph on the causes
of alcoholism, you might write a topic sentence that states, ‘The most
compelling cause of alcoholism is genetics.’ From this, the reader will know
that you will cover the concept of heredity and alcoholism within this paragraph.
3. Sufficient support: While your opinions thoughts are important, they cannot be
the legs your paper stands on. You need to support your topic ideas by developing
the paragraphs with evidence from credible sources. Support comes in many
different forms: statistics, researched information, observations, descriptions,
case studies, interviews, personal experience, hypothetical situations, definitions,
etc. The more specific the information, the more interesting the paragraph. So
instead of writing about all alcoholics, you might want to write about one
particular alcoholic—someone you know, someone you observed, someone you
interviewed, someone you researched.
4. Coherence: This means it all comes together. If an essay is coherent, all the
paragraphs relate to the one before it and all the sentences relate to the one
before it. Transitional words and phrases help to create bridges between
sentences, words such as: however, for example, in other words, in contrast,
nevertheless, etc. You set up the key words to an essay and a paragraph within
the thesis statement and the topic sentences.
5. Unity: The idea here is not to veer off into the woods. Stay on the path. Make
sure all sentences relate to the topic sentence and all paragraphs relate to the
thesis.

You can use tools such as Google Docs or Zoho Writer to create, revise, and store
your drafts in a digital writing portfolio

C. Revising
Revision means taking another look at what you have written to make sure
you are complying with your intentions as a writer and with your readers'
expectations as well. Revising a draft means changing word, sentence and paragraph
order. It also involves adding new pieces and doing away with others.
 The following example paragraph exhibits some coherence problems that the
revision addresses:

Original: Soils represent major sinks for metals like cadmium that are released into
the environment. Soil does not have an infinite capacity to absorb metal
contaminants, and when this capacity is exhausted, environmental consequences are
incurred. Contamination of soils by cadmium and other heavy metals has become a
global concern in recent years because of the increasing demands of society for food
production, waste disposal, and a healthier environment. The main causes of
cadmium contamination in soils are amendment materials (e.g., municipal waste
sludge) and fallout from nonferrous metal production and power plants.

Revision: Such sources as mines, smelters, power plants, and municipal waste
treatment facilities release metals into the environment. These heavy metals,
especially cadmium, then find their way into the soil. The soil does not have an
infinite capacity to absorb these metals. Instead, unabsorbed metals move through
the soil into the groundwater or are extracted by crops that take the contamination
into the food chain.

In the revision, the links in the chain are underlined. The beginning of each new
sentence follows up familiar information, and the end introduces new information that is
then recycled. Sentences that did not relate directly to the topic (the process of metal
absorption by soil) have been removed.

REVISION CHECKLIST

Content

Is the main idea specific enough?

Is my lead appealing enough to hook the reader?
Does my writing stay on topic?
Do my written ideas all relate to each other?

Organization

Is my paper organized in a sensible and logical way?

Do I have enough supporting details?
 Do my details relate to the main idea?
Do I have any information that is not related to the main idea?
Did I use transition words correctly to connect my details together?
Does my closing sentence make sense?

Style

Are my word choices specific instead of unclear?

Do I need any similes or metaphors to make a detail more vivid?
Do I have some short and long sentences?
Do they flow well?
Is there any unnecessary repetition of ideas or details?
Do my sentences begin in different ways?
Does my writing sound smooth when I read it aloud?

D. Editing

Careful editing is essential to good writing. After the drafting, it should not be
completed immediately. A time gap helps you to look at your writing more with the
reader's eyes than with the writer. Editing is a process with two stages: macro- and
micro- editing.

Macro-editing
Editing at the macro-level involves looking at the big questions: How well will the
document achieve your purpose? How appropriate is it for readers and how
effectively has it met their needs? Is the overall shape, look and design of the
document appropriate for your objective?

When reading a macro-level text, recognize something that will be counter-

productive to achieve your aim. When you consider your reader(s), you can decide
you need to:
 add information if they need more context or background to your message;
 eliminate extra information if they are very familiar with your subject;
 add examples to clarify your points.

By reflecting on the overall document structure, you may decide that if you do:
the message will be clearer if you:

 re-organize the document;

 strengthen particular sections of your document, like introductions,
conclusions, and recommendations;
 improve the transitions between sections and between paragraphs.

Micro-editing
Micro level editing is about ensuring that all the mechanical elements are correct,
such as:
 sentence and paragraph structure grammar
 punctuation
 spelling
 word usage
Editing Example:

The following paragraphs contain some errors involving run-on sentences or comma
splices, subject-verb agreement, irregular verb forms, and comma usage. Identify and
correct all errors.

I get very sleepy during my biology lab after lunch, I can barely stay awake. Sometimes
my lab partners who is also my roommates has to nudge me when I start drifting off. I yawn
the entire period I have trouble keeping my mind on the lab experiment.

Corrected

I get very sleepy during my biology lab after lunch, and I can barely stay awake.
Sometimes my lab partners, who are also my roommates, have to nudge me when I start
drifting off. I yawn the entire period, and I have trouble keeping my mind on the lab
experiment.

7 Writing Tasks for Young ESL Learners:

1. Word Jumble
This activity is useful for those who have just started writing in English.
Since writing whole sentences on their own can be rather challenging, this activity
can help students understand word order, and yet, it gives them the support they
need.
Divide students into small groups of three or four, or into pairs. Give each
group a set of cards containing words that can be used to form a sentence. These
words are clearly jumbled, in other words, in the wrong order. Students have to put
them in order to make the sentence, and then copy the sentence onto their notebook
or separate worksheet.
You may be tempted to give them a worksheet with a list of sentences
where the words are in the wrong order, but with very young learners, it is essential
for them to have cards they can manipulate and move around.

2. What Happens Next?

Give students the first sentence or beginning of a story, and ask them to
complete the story. To make it fun, they can be given funny or even ridiculous
 sentences/situations (It was a clear, starry night when the cow jumped over the moon
or Michael opened his sock drawer, and all his socks had disappeared.)
This helps students use their creativity and understand how sentences
relate to one another to make a cohesive text.

3. What is Happening in This Picture?

This is a simple writing activity where you show students an illustration and
ask them to write about what they see. illustrations that show a lot of things
happening at the same time are great for this activity; students can choose or even
create a small story that revolves around the whole scene.
Most often, if we ask students to “write” they have no idea where to begin.
You can give them a visual prompt to get them started and to guide them in terms of
content so that they won’t stray too far from the topic.

4. Story with a Twist

This is a great post-reading writing activity. After the reading, ask your
students to change the ending. You can read a well-known classic or a story that is
completely new to them. They can change a few details or change the outcome
altogether. They will need to get creative here but they will be using a story they are
familiar with and have that extra, needed support.

5. Let’s Write Together

This is a classic writing activity when you have a large group of young ESL
students who don’t feel confident enough to write an entire story on their own.One
student writes a sentence (or you can get the ball rolling yourself), and the next has
to write the sentence that follows and so on till the story is complete. And it doesn’t
have to be a “story”; they can write a news article or a journal entry.
This is a great task to promote cooperation and collaboration among
students. Also, since each one will be completing a part of the text, they will have to
make choices regarding text structure, i.e, decide if they need to start a new
paragraph.

6. Yummy Writing
Give or show students a series of pictures that illustrate how a dish is
prepared.The pictures should show the series of steps involved in a recipe but
students have to write the instructions that go with each picture.
This is a great activity to practice imperatives and also how to give
instructions.

7. What’s Missing?
Give students a text; it can be an e-mail, a report, a newspaper article or
even a story. A part is taken out and students have to complete it with the missing
information. Of course, they will completely make up what is missing. The important
thing is not for the information to be accurate (for example, the time or day
something happened) but coherent with the rest of the text.
Writing can be hard for young ESL learners – it’s hard enough in their native
language.
But don’t make the mistake of discounting it as “too hard”. Instead, give
them a nudge, a prompt and a little support, whether it is through the first words or
images that go with the text. You will boost their confidence and make them happy
little writers!

Try These 12 Simple Tricks to Make Writing Fun:

1. Use Stickers
 You don’t have to limit your sticker use to marking a job well done. Use
stickers to inspire your students to write while they have fun decorating the page.
Gather a variety of stickers – people, animals, places, props, etc. – and cut them
into individual pieces. Then throw all the stickers in a bag and shake it up. Let
your students choose between three and five stickers (depending on their
language level – more stickers for more advanced writers) and then have them
incorporate those people or objects into a story of their own creation.

2. Do It as a Class
Do write communal stories with your ESL students? If not, you should.
Working together gets individual creativity flowing, and what we create with
others is often far more than we could do ourselves. There are lots of ways to
write with other people. Put several notebooks in a writing center. Have one
person start a story or start it yourself, and then allow your students to add to a
story of their choosing during free learning periods. Have one student choose the
characters and another student the conflict, and then have them work together to
write the final piece. Have one student write a sentence on a piece of paper and
pass it to the person next to him. Then that person adds a sentence. Continue
until everyone in class has had a chance to add their own line to the story.

3. Read
Reading is one of the greatest way to inspire writers in your class. Choose a
poem or a short piece of literature to read as a class. Then have students use that
selection as a model for their own compositions. They can either follow the
structure and style of what you read or just write about the same content. Either
way, the great writers will come out among you when you give them great things
to read.

4. Give Creative Inspiration

When you take time and effort to inspire your writers, it is sure to show in
their writing. Create a scene, draw a picture, collect interesting photos, or teach
them appealing vocabulary. Then ask your students to use what you have
prepared as inspiration for their own compositions. If you have never tried setting
up a classroom crime scene to inspire your students, you might want to give it a
try. Then let your students write and see how the creativity flows.

5. Let Mistakes Go
Letting students make mistakes and not correcting them may go against
the nature of the ESL teacher, but sometimes not saying something is the best
policy. When students are over-corrected, they can become discouraged or fearful
of writing. Try some free-writing or give your students permission to write freely in
a journal. Make sure they know you won’t be correcting for grammar or spelling.
Then have students use what they wrote as a starting point for a more formal
piece of writing which you will then correct.

6. Show Them Off

Recognize good writing in your students in front of their peers to inspire the
writers among you. You might want to read particularly good writing to the rest of
the class (with the author’s permission, of course). Try “publishing” books of your
students’ writing and then putting them on display in your classroom. Your
bragging might be something as simple as stapling what your students have
written to a bulletin board in your class, or displaying them in the hallway of your
school. When your students feel proud of what they have written, it will inspire
and encourage them to write more.

7. Give Them Inspiring Tools

 Did you ever have a pen that wrote in four different colors? If you had one
as a kid, you might have done what just about every other kid did. Write one line
with each of the colors and rotate through the page. You can give your students
creative inspiration in a writing center of your classroom even if you don’t have
four-colored pens for the entire class. On a spare desk, set out several different
colors and types of paper with colored pens and pencils. Include pencils and
markers that are scented as well. You may find that your students write just so
they can use a different type of paper or color pen.

8. Illustrate
Some students become discouraged when they write because they just
can’t get their ideas across. Give them another avenue to communicate by asking
them to illustrate their story or nonfiction piece. When students know they can
include a picture to share their thoughts, their inability to express exactly what
they want in writing becomes less of an obstacle. Your struggling writers know
that they can include important information in their picture, and it won’t be a total
loss if they can’t find the right words to put their ideas into writing.

9. Make it Real Life

Some students get frustrated when they are writing for writing’s sake. Help
these students by giving them a purpose for what they are writing. Have them
write letters, thank you cards, e-mails, or other pieces they will have a use for in
real life. If you like, let them “mail” the letters and cards to their classmates in a
classroom mail center or through the U.S. mail.

10. Be a Model
If you want your students to have fun while writing, be sure to model your
own writing for them. Let them see you write while they do, and share what you
have written with them. Students who write well usually have teachers who write
well, also.

11. Keep a Writer’s Notebook

A writer’s notebook is a great place for your students to collect ideas and
get creative. You can direct students to particular exercises in their writer’s
notebook or let them come up with the ideas on their own. Then, when it’s time to
write, students will have a notebook full of ideas from which they can draw ideas
and inspiration.

12. Have Fun Teaching Writing

The most effective tool you have for bringing fun to writing for your
students is to have fun while teaching it. If you appreciate the value of what you
are teaching and are enthusiastic about it, your students will be, too.

Type of Authentic Materials for Teaching Writing

Research has shown that in this 21st century, the use of technology in the classroom is
inevitable. The access of internet is easy and inexpensive. It does not need big PC or
computer to surf in the internet as gadget and smart phone are already sufficient.
Therefore, teachers with easy internet access and support of electricity, tend to use
technology to help reach the learning objectives. However, some printed instructional
media are still used in the classroom for the sake of its availability. Based on research,
there are many materials that teacher can use for teaching writing. It can be printed
materials, such as fictions (Setyowati & Sukmawan, 2018), picture series (Styati, 2016), or
web-based materials, such as You Tube videos (Styati, 2016), websites (Sundana, 2018).

In terms of how the materials are transmitted, the authentic materials are divided into
three broad categories, namely audio, visual, and printed materials (Maroko, 2010).
Furthermore, Sundana (2018) also states that the authentic materials can also in the form
of newspaper, magazines, and internet articles. As stated by Benavent & Penamaria
(2011), with such an advancement of technology nowadays, teachers tend to take the
authentic materials from the internet. Thus, it can be concluded that basically there are two
broad category of authentic materials for teaching writing, namely the printed materials
and the web-based materials. The printed materials may in the form of printed
magazines, printed newspaper, printed itinerary, invitation, letters, printed literary works
such as collection, of short stories novels, poems, and play, and other printed texts or
documents. The second type of authentic materials is the digital one or the web-based
materials, such as pictures, You Tube, movie clips, electronic books, novels, short stories,
poems, and web-based application, like booksie.com, storybird.com, and many more.

Supports for Authentic Materials

As authentic materials have gained its popularity in language teaching, there should be
reasons why authentic materials are widely used in classroom context. Based on the review
of literature, there are several aspects preferred by writing teachers/lecturers on the use of
authentic materials. Among others, they are real and motivating.

Authenticity

Authentic means real and original which lead to a definition that authentic materials
are those materials which are not simplified and not specifically created for language
teaching. Khaniya ( 2010:18) define authentic materials as “ the degree of congruence
between the language of a learning material and the features of target language use”. He
further states that without the presentation of authentic materials in the classroom, it is
difficult to predict how the students performs the language they learn in the classroom to
the actual life outside the classroom.

Based on the research conducted by Crossley et al ( 2007) the naturalness of authentic

materials lay in the syntactical complexity and low-frequency words used in the texts. With
sufficient practice given to the students, authentic materials can give more benefits for
language learners as compared to the simplified/artificial materials. Similarly, Tomlinson
( 2012) gives the characteristics of ideal materials for English Language Teaching (ELT).
Among others, ELT materials should contain authentic use of the language which have
authentic input features. He argues that using authentic materials help the students to
acquire the language effectively. Therefore, he believes that simplifying the authentic texts
for learning purposes is not necessary.

Motivating

Authentic materials are said to be interesting and motivating if used in the classroom.
It is like bringing the real world into the classroom. Day (2004) calls this the ‘affect’ reason.
Teachers/lecturers and researchers who have used authentic materials often claim that
authentic materials are engaging, motivating and interesting. The second common reason
is authentic materials prepare students to face the real world outside the classroom. It is
motivating for the students because it provides real language, real culture and a variety of
genre used by the professional community (Benavent & Penamaria, 2011).

For foreign language learners, the use of authentic materials for learning a target
language is indeed motivating. With the lack of exposure to the target language, the use of
authentic materials minimizes the bridge between the artificial world (what they learn in the
classroom) and the real world (what they find outside the classroom). One of the example
of authentic materials that can be used for language teaching is the use of short stories.
The use of short stories in the language classroom is like killing two birds with one stone, in
the sense that short stories can be used to teach all four skills at the same time, listening,
reading, speaking and writing (Erkaya, 2005). The use of short stories, if they are carefully
chosen, give motivational benefit because they triggers the students’ curiosity about what’s
coming next (the plot), cultural value, and moral value.

Performance and Portfolio-Based Assessment in Teaching Writing

A. Performance-Based Assessment

Performance assessment uses tasks that require students to demonstrate their

knowledge, skills, and strategies by creating a response or a product (Rudner &
Boston, 1994; Wiggins, 1989). Unlike a traditional standardized test in which students
select one of the responses provided, a performance assessment requires students to
perform a task or generate their own responses. For example, a performance task in
writing would require students to actually produce a piece of writing rather than
answering a series of multiple-choice questions about grammar or the structure of a
paragraph. Performance assessment is authentic when it mimics the kind of work
that is done in real-world contexts. For example, an authentic performance task in
environmental science might require a student to conduct research on the impacts of
fertilizer on local groundwater and then report the results to the public through a
public service announcement or informational brochure.
Performance assessment typically is evaluated using rubrics. Rubrics display
indicators of performance on the selected evaluative criteria across a range of levels.
These levels are written to represent the appropriate range of student performance
(such as lower elementary, middle school, or high school). Some rubrics are designed
to score a performance task holistically, while analytic rubrics are designed to be
scored across multiple dimensions to represent the work in a fine-grained way that
allows for more specific feedback to students and instructors.

B. Portfolio-Based Assessment

Portfolios are collections of relevant work that reflect students’ individual efforts,
development, and progress over a designated period of time. Portfolios provide
students, teachers, parents, and administrators with a broad picture of each
student’s growth over time, including the student’s abilities, knowledge, skills, and
attitudes.
Students should be involved in the selection of work to be included, goal setting for
personal learning, and self-assessment. The teacher can encourage critical thinking
by having students decide which of their works to include in their portfolios and
explain why they chose particular items. Instruction and assessment are integrated
as students and teachers collaborate to compile relevant and individual portfolios for
each student.

References

https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1244358.pdf

https://edpolicy.stanford.edu/sites/default/files/events/materials/2011-06-linked-learning-
performance-based-assessment.pdf