Unit4_section2 Writing 1

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Unit 4 Section 2 1

Writing 1

Summary

In this section we focus on the writing skill. We will begin by looking at the difficultiesexperienced by writers. Some of these relate to writing in L1 as well, and theproblems only increase when it comes to trying to write effectively in a foreignlanguage. We will be looking at what characterises good writing and effective writingprocesses, and you will also consider which aspects of writing are likely to causedifficulty to learners of different nationalities and at different levels. We will then go onto consider different approaches to the teaching of writing – the product approach,the process approach and the genre approach and how these may be seen ascomplementary. We will then consider what ‘sub-skills’ are included in the writingskill, and look at practical activities for working on these. Finally we will be looking atwriting tasks in published materials; we will consider criteria for evaluation and thenyou will be asked to look at a number of tasks from coursebooks. At the end of thesection you will find a list of useful books for teaching writing as well as a list of

reading references.

Objectives

By the end of this unit you should be able to:

• Identify difficulties that your learners experience when trying to write effectively inEnglish.

• Demonstrate awareness of what is involved in effective texts and effective writingprocesses.

•

Identify objectives for your learners in terms of developing their writing skills.• Demonstrate familiarity with different approaches to teaching writing.

• Devise or find appropriate activities to help learners with particular aspects ofeffective writing.

• Vary your approach in lessons based around producing a written text, usingappropriate elements from a product, process, or genre approach.

• Evaluate and select tasks and materials for teaching writing skills.



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Contents

1. Why is writing difficult?

1.1. Writing Difficulties for Writers in L1

1.2. Additional Writing Difficulties for L2 Writers

2. What is involved in good writing?

3. Approaches to Teaching Writing

3.1. Historical Perspective on the Teaching of Writing

3.2. The Model Text Approach or the Product Approach

3.3. The Process Approach

3.4. The Genre Approach

3.5. Conclusions about Different Approaches to Teaching Writing

4. Teaching Writing Sub-skills

4.1. Identifying Sub-skills

4.2. Writing Activities for Developing Sub-skills

5. Evaluating Writing Tasks

6. Useful Books for Using in the Classroom

7. Terminology review

Reading

Appendices



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1. Why is writing difficult?

‘An ability to write appropriately and effectively is.... something whichevades many of us, in our mother tongues or in any other languages thatwe may wish to learn’ (Tribble, C. Writing page 3).

Unlike speaking, which every normal child learns to do early on in life and whichrequires little, if any, effort, writing is something that does not occur naturally. It has tobe learnt in some kind of systematic way. Some people never learn to write andmany never become very skilled at writing. What makes writing so difficult?

1.1. Writing Difficulties for Writers in L1

TASK 1: Brainstorming Difficulties (10 mins)

Since you are in the process of following the DELTA course you probably havesome thoughts on this already! Even if you’re the kind of person who likeswriting, there are still difficult moments. Why is writing difficult even in your ownlanguage? Brainstorm a list of reasons.

Here are some suggested answers:

You need to settle down and get started. Writing is an activity that it is always easierto put off than to get down to. You need space, a place, the right materials, and theright mood. You need motivation!

You have to concentrate. It’s an activity that you usually have to do on your ownbecause it requires concentration. Sometimes it’s difficult to get away from otherpeople and other distractions.

You need ideas. What am I going to say? This depends on the piece of writing ofcourse. Some things may be more difficult than others. Sometimes there may be avery clear message you want to get across (e.g. writing to your bank to ask them tosend you an application form for a credit card) and you may spend more time onformulating it. Other times the content itself may need more thinking about - forexample, thinking of interesting (and appropriate) things to tell your great aunt in athank you letter.

You need time. It takes time to write and people nowadays complain so much aboutlack of time. It’s certainly my students’ (and my) most common excuse for not havingwritten something that requires a bit of effort.

You need to express yourself clearly - comprehensibly and unambiguously. You haveto be more careful when writing as opposed to speaking. In speaking you canbacktrack, correct yourself, rephrase things if your listeners look perplexed. Mostspeaking takes place face to face or with somebody responding immediately. Withwriting, however, there is usually no immediate feedback from the reader (althoughemail, chat groups etc. change this a bit). You have to bear in mind what the readeralready knows and doesn’t know about the subject.

You have to say it in the right way (tone, style). This is important if you want to makethe right impression on your reader so you may spend some time on thinking how



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best to express your ideas. Some texts may take longer than others, e.g. a coveringletter for a job application can be very time consuming. Widdowson and Davies, inEdinburgh Course in Applied Linguistics 3, OUP 1974, made a distinctionbetween personal and institutional writing. Most of the writing we do nowadays is ofan institutional type:

‘Institutional writing is usually addressed to roles rather than to personsand is usually conventionalised in the sense that there is a set of wellestablished conventions as to how things should be expressed. Theseconventions represent partially stereotyped routines’ (Widdowson &Davies, op cit p 179).

We may experience more difficulty with some genres than others.

You must write correctly (without grammar or spelling mistakes). This is a problem fornative speakers too!

You often have to write and rewrite. This is easier now with word processing ofcourse, but you all probably have an image of screwed-up pieces of paperaccumulating around the wastepaper bin as you start on the text yet again. Asurprising number of people don’t use their word processors to rewrite, perhapsbecause they are not in the habit of rewriting.

It’s not something you normally do, and the lack of habit makes it more difficult. It’sobviously easier if you’re in the habit of writing. What do you actually write in yournormal life? Make a list of what you’ve written recently. (5mins) This course is aparticular case where you have returned to having to produce quite long texts, butwriting is often not a part of most people’s lives. Most people will opt for a phone callrather than sitting down and writing even something quite simple.

‘Lawyers, journalists, educators, businessmen and civil servants areregular writers, and bricklayers, bus-drivers, factory workers andelectricians are not. Writing, then is the activity of the minority, theprofessional people who write because their professions oblige them to

do so as an essential part of their job, and who write in conformity withconventions which belong to their normal professional routines.’Widdowson and Davies (op cit p 178).

1.2. Additional writing difficulties for L2 writers

Nowadays, we expect anybody with a basic education to be able to write in their L1but few people, it would appear, actually need to become highly proficient writers ofmany different types of text. However, learners of English who are following ageneral English course will inevitably be asked to do writing as part of their courseand will probably be asked to write a number of different types of text or genres inEnglish.



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TASK 2: Student Survey about Writing (30 mins)

Find out about your learners’ attitudes to writing. Use the questionnaire in Appendix 1 or adapt it (if you are giving it to a monolingual low level class youmay want to do it in their L1).

Based on the results, you should be able to reach some conclusions about yourlearners’ attitudes towards writing and their needs. This should help inform yourteaching and we also pick up on it later in Task 5 and Task 10.

In addition to the difficulties that L1 writers experience, students writing in L2 mayhave further difficulties:

Lack of motivation

Learners do not perceive writing as useful beyond the classroom.

You may have discovered otherwise from the survey of your learners. However, itmay be true that for lots of students there isn’t that much need in real life to write inEnglish, especially all the text types we ask them to produce. Somebody who usesEnglish at work may have very specific writing needs, e.g. writing or e-mailingbusiness associates but other students may have no need to write beyond theclassroom. I know a lot of English native speaker people who have lived in Portugalfor many years and are married to Portuguese people. They speak fluently (notalways 100 percent grammatically correctly and sometimes with distinctpronunciation problems), but all of them cite writing as their main area of difficulty –the simple reason being that they’ve never had to do it.

Language difficulties

Writing is more difficult than the other skills. It takes time and effort to producesomething that is well written. Even with access to grammar books, dictionaries andso on it’s not always easy to find the correct and appropriate way to say something.In addition to basic grammar and vocabulary difficulties, it is important in writing tochoose the appropriate way of expressing your ideas.

Writing conventions in English may be different from the students’ L1

An immediately obvious difference is in formal letters where in many languages thereare set layouts and phrases that should be used. But there is more to this. Forexample, as native speakers we can pretty quickly recognise different text types fromthe way they are laid out and from the language used. We have certain expectationsabout how text is organised, the kind of language used and there are conventionsthat writers of particular text types follow. In other words we have an awareness of

genre. Are the features of a particular genre in English the same in other languages?The answer to this is not entirely clear although it is probable that texts are structureddifferently.

If you would like to read about this, see:

Swales, J. 1990 Genre Analysis Cambridge University Press p64 to p67

Taylor, L. April 1997 Teaching writing- teaching culture ETP Issue 3



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Unfamiliarity with script

For learners whose first language uses a different script, there are added difficulties.This tends to affect Arabic speaking students rather than other nationalities who donot use the Roman script (e.g. Japanese, Thai or Russian). This might be because incountries where Arabic is a first language, children are not taught the Roman scriptearly on and different writing conventions (right to left as opposed to left to right, thecursive style etc) make forming the characters difficult.

If you are interested in this, read:

Ball, W. October 1986 Writing English script: an overlooked skill ELTJ 40/4

Byrne, D. 1988 Teaching Writing Skills Longman, Chapter 12

Sassoon, R. 1995 The Acquisition of a Second Writing System Intellect,Chapters 1 and 2

Learners may lack knowledge of the world, especially teenage writers

Some learners may not be aware of how to go about a certain task in their ownlanguage let alone in English. For example, a letter of complaint about a holiday, orthe pros and cons of a year off between school and university may be somethingentirely beyond their experience.

Lack of knowledge of genre to transfer from L1

As we have seen, few people need to be proficient writers of a variety of genres intheir own language. Thus writing an article or writing a story may be something thatlearners would find difficult to do effectively in their own language let alone in alanguage they are just learning.

Educational interference

In traditional classrooms in secondary schools, for example, writing may have playedquite an important role. But it was often a role of language reinforcement rather thanof training the learners in any particular writing skills. There was of course anunderlying assumption here that writing was the written down version of the orallanguage practice that took place in class and there was no difference betweenspoken and written language (in more text based approaches such as grammartranslation everything was based on the written language). Nowadays we are awarethat there are very distinct differences between the spoken and the written language.

Writing is dull

Compared to the ‘fun’ of oral activities, writing may be perceived as dull as well asdifficult by learners. There are ways of livening it up of course but again learners mayhave negative expectations about writing. Writing is often set as homework becauseit is something learners can do on their own (unlike speaking).

Lack of good writing skills in L1

Writing is a skill that is learnt and does not occur naturally like speech. Somelearners of English may be poor writers in their L1 so they don’t have any skills totransfer.



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TASK 3: Classroom Research – Learners’ Difficulties when Writing

Either

1. As learners write their first draft of a short text, ask them to write (perhaps in

a different colour) any questions or difficulties that they have as they arise.Or

2. Ask learners to record themselves as they do the same task, so that they sayaloud what their difficulties are as they go along.

(For an example of 2 see White, R. & Arndt, V. Process Writing Longman, page14).

What do the main areas of difficulty appear to be from the learners’ point ofview? Do they mention issues we have looked at so far?

2. What is involved in good writing?

The easiest thing to spot when looking at a piece of student writing are the mistakesthat jump out at you – and these tend to be grammar or spelling mistakes. But goodwriting and bad writing are characterised by much more than this.

TASK 4: Talking about Good and Bad Writing (1hour)

Look at the piece of writing in Appendix 2. It was written by a student in aCambridge Proficiency (advanced) class and the teacher awarded it top marks.What characterises it?

Now look at Appendix 3. There is a piece of writing here from a Cambridge FCE(intermediate) student. What are the strengths and weaknesses?

Now listen to some teachers doing the same task. Do they identify the samefeatures as you?

From your thoughts and what the teachers said, what features would you identifyas characterising a good piece of writing?

Now read on:

‘...if writers know what to write in a given context, what the readerexpects the text to look like in a given context, and which parts of thelanguage system are relevant to the particular task in hand, and have acommand of writing skills appropriate to the task, then they have a goodchance of writing something that will be effective.’

Tribble, C. Writing page 68



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Let us look at these categories in more detail.

Effective writers need knowledge of the genre so that the text they producewill:

• Be recognisable in layout, content and language used as an example of thatgenre.

• Contain appropriate content according to the topic and the purpose of the textand the intended reader.

• Have a clear purpose.

• Be appropriately organised in terms of content with logically developed points inparagraphs and in the text as a whole if the genre requires this.

• Be appropriately laid out according to convention (e.g. letter, report format), withclear spacing, paragraphing.

They also need knowledge of language systems so that the text they producewill:

• Use language of a style appropriate to that genre and text type (e.g. contractions,phrasal verbs, modals, colloquialisms in an informal letter to a friend).

• Be accurate in terms of spelling, grammar, use of lexis (although errors may betolerated more readily in some informal text types- e.g. a note to a friend - than inother more formal ones – e.g. a letter of application for a job.).

• Make appropriate use of cohesive devices to guide the reader through the textand avoid unnecessary repetition.

• Use punctuation accurately.

Writers also need knowledge of the process of writing appropriate to this task.

This might include knowledge about planning, researching content, using referenceresources, using other texts, drafting, editing, proof reading, having a clear idea ofhow polished the final product needs to be, whether the text should be hand-written(legibly or less so) or word processed and so on. Which processes are appropriatedepend on the type of text that is being written. Obviously if you are writing aninformal note to a friend you do not need to go through such a lengthy writingprocess as if you are writing a Delta assignment.



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TASK 5: Problems with Writing at Different Levels and amongDifferent Nationalities (20 mins)

You are going to join in an ideas exchange about the problems that learnersexperience as writers.

On the basis of what you found out in tasks 2 and 3, and your own observations,what do you think are your learners’ main areas of difficulty with writing? Can youidentify any general tendencies among particular nationalities or learners atdifferent levels? Choose two or three points which seem to be the most importantgeneral tendencies. Suggest why this is the case.

Put these points onto the study group discussion forum. Organise your ideasunder headings and into bullet points. For example:

Portuguese learners of English tend to:

• Use too many commas (instead of full stops or semicolons). This is becausethe comma is used differently in Portuguese.

• Have difficulties with paragraphing appropriately. Sometimes they write onesentence paragraphs, other times they don’t use paragraphs at all. This maybe because of different conventions in Portuguese writing.

• Sound too formal because they over-use Latin based vocabulary (Englishwords that look similar to Portuguese).

3. Approaches to teaching writing

In this section you will be considering your own approach to teaching writingparticularly in the light of the product, process and genre approaches.



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TASK 6: How do you teach writing? (30mins)

Think about two or three pieces of writing that you have set for your learners.What stages did you go through in setting up each of the tasks?

Make notes about the type of text that you asked the learners to produce andthe stages you went through in the lesson to set it up.

You will come back to your notes later after reading about different approachesto teaching writing.

Here is an example:

Focus: writing a letter to a newspaper editor stating an opinion

Based on Aspinall, T. and Capel, W. Advanced Masterclass CAE OxfordUniversity Press, Unit 10 (See Appendix 4).

Students completed questionnaire about zoos and discussed whether they thinkzoos should be abolished or not.

Students completed tasks 1 and 2 from the book, in pairs. Task 3 answered as awhole class. Then in groups of four, students discussed task 4 and wrote a firstdraft of the letter.

Teacher collected in the texts, typed them up and photocopied them for the nextclass. Students looked at all the texts, making corrections and changes asappropriate. Open class discussion about good points (language, organisationetc) from each. Using the edited texts, the teacher, and dictionaries as support,students wrote a second draft of the letter in groups. Teacher collected the textsin and marked them.

3.1. Historical Perspective on the Teaching of Writing

Reading and writing were the major focus in the grammar translation method.However, it cannot be said that writing was taught as a skill in its own right. Therewas a lot of writing at the sentence level, to practise particular grammar points thathad been presented. Translation of texts to and from the target language featuredheavily and précis or summary writing was used. Sometimes learners were alsoasked to write compositions: these would be on a topic related to the reading textsthey had worked on and would also provide more practice of the grammar pointscovered. There was no attention paid to what learners might need to write in real life,to different types of text or to writing processes since the grammar translation methoddid not look beyond the classroom context. Writing in the foreign language was aform of intellectual exercise, rather than related to any real life need.

As speaking came to occupy a more prominent role in language teaching (directmethod, oral approach, situational language teaching, audiolingualism) writing wasrelegated to fourth place in terms of skills priorities. The order that the skills weredealt with was first listening, then speaking, followed by reading, and finally writing.Writing was used only to provide consolidation of structures that had already beenpresented and practised earlier. Writing of texts, which only happened at a late stagein the course, was guided. Again there was no attention paid to the writing of different



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text types or to different styles of writing. Writing simply had a reinforcement role. Itwas not seen as a skill in its own right.

Now, however, the situation has changed. In the 1980s writing began to gain moreimportance and to be seen as a skill worth teaching in its own right. This came alongwith the increasing concern with identifying learner needs and awareness of differenttypes of language, or in other words, with the communicative approach.

3.2. The Model Text Approach or Product Approach

The approach to teaching writing that developed in the late 70s and early 80s usuallycentred on the use of a model text. The text was not usually authentic but provided aconveniently clear model of a certain type of text. The text would be read andattention drawn through various exercises to certain features of the text. The learnerswould carry out controlled and then less controlled exercises based on some of thelanguage (e.g. linking devices, vocabulary used). The learners would then go on toproduce a similar text themselves, using the language they had practised.

The model text approach in teaching writing echoes that in use with the teaching ofstructure at this time - presentation, practice, production- or PPP. Anita Pincas inTeaching English Writing , Macmillan 1982, calls it familiarisation, controlled/guidedexercises, free writing. She writes:

“Any aspect of writing that is to be learned should be demonstrated in amodel of some kind. Learners need to start by becoming familiar with thetype of writing they are going to practise. Once they have achieved somefamiliarity with it, they can practise the skills involved. After suchexercises they can try to produce their own piece of writing”.

Pincas, op cit page 14

She identified certain essential writing skills (Pincas, op cit, page 26)

Essential writing skills

Communication Composition Style

Communication betweenpeople

Constructing sentences Writing in the fourmajor styles:narrative,descriptive,expository,argumentative

Suiting a specific subject Using paragraphs Achieving the desireddegree of formality

Presenting ideas Using linking devices Creating the desiredemotive tone

If you can find it, skim read Pincas, A. Teaching English Writing 1982 Macmillanand find out what was involved in each of the above skills.

If you have not got the book by Pincas, see Appendix 5, which summarises the mainpoints.



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The product approach represented a systematic approach to the teaching of writingwhich was a great step forward. It remains a very popular approach to teachingwriting and is evident in many books still in use, either in its entirety or in parts ofwriting exercises. It has informed later approaches but these have tended to focus onand develop certain aspects of it further.

3.3. The Process approach

By the late 1980s a new approach to teaching writing was being talked about and thiswas called process writing. This approach emphasises the creativity andunpredictability of writing and focuses on developing the composing process ofwriting, that is generating ideas, planning, drafting, editing, rewriting and so on.

‘What differentiates a process-focussed approach from a product-centred one is that the outcome of the writing – that is the product - is notpre-conceived. Writing in a process approach is divergent, with as manydifferent outcomes as there are writers ‘

White, R. & Arndt, V. Process Writing page 5

‘[The process approach] lays particular stress on a cycle of writingactivities which move learners from the generation of ideas and thecollection of data through to the publication of a f inished text’.


If we take White and Arndt’s model as exemplifying process writing, they present it asfollows:

From White, R. & Arndt, V. Process Writing Longman 1991, page 4



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It is not a linear approach since the writer is constantly moving between stages torevise his/her work. The basic elements of a process approach in a teaching contextare:

Pre-writing stages

This involves specifying the task, generating or collecting ideas for content through

whatever means are appropriate - brainstorming, questions, questionnaires, thinkingabout the reader, making notes, using visuals, picture sequences, maps and plans,role-play /simulation etc.

A next stage would be ‘focussing’ which refers to identifying the central idea of thetext, the viewpoint, the purpose, the reader and the appropriate form. It also involveslooking at selecting and ordering ideas.

Composing/drafting

This is where the learners start to actually write their texts. It could also, as part of ateaching sequence, involve using examples of drafts written by the teacher, analysisof collected authentic examples of texts or parts of texts, such as beginnings andendings, focussing on what the reader needs to know, and the input of formulaicexpressions that can be used in different text types.

Evaluating and revising

At this stage learners are encouraged to evaluate their own and other learners’ work,looking to see if the text conforms to expectations of this text type, whether thewriter’s purpose is clear, if the ideas are organised clearly and whether it has anoverall positive effect on the reader. The teacher may also respond to the textfocussing on these aspects, making suggestions rather than corrections. This couldbe done through writing to the student or through talking to the learner(conferencing). McGarrell & Verbeem (2007) explore how important it is to provideformative feedback which focuses on content, rather than purely evaluative feedback,commenting on language use. Other activities may focus now on language aspects,

such as use of cohesive devices, range of vocabulary, aspects of style and so on.This may include the use of correction codes.

Editing and redrafting

The learners are required to produce subsequent edited drafts, perhaps three, takingon board the feedback given on the initial drafts.

Publication

Ideally the finished text should be read by more people than just the teacher.

To find out more about the process approach to writing you can read:

McGarrell, H. & Verbeem, J. 2007 Motivating Revision of Drafts throughFormative Feedback in ELTJ 61/3

Tribble, C. 1996 Writing Oxford University Press, Chapter 5

White, R. & Arndt, V. 1991 Process Writing Longman (skim read)

3.4. The Genre Approach

You will certainly have come across the term genre as used in relation to types ofliterary text. Within an ELT and linguistics context it takes on a rather broader



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meaning and refers to kinds of discourse such as prayers, sermons, poems, novels,recipes, news broadcasts and so on. (See also Discourse in Unit 3, Section 1).

“Genre is quite easily used to refer to a distinctive category of discourseof any type, spoken or written, with or without literary aspirations.”

Swales, J. 1990 Genre Analysis Cambridge University Press

“The principal criterial feature that turns a collection of communicativeevents into a genre is some shared set of communicative purposes”.

“In addition to purpose, exemplars of a genre exhibit various patterns ofsimilarity in terms of structure, style, content and intended audience”.

Swales op cit p58

The main proponents of genre-based approaches so far have come from universitiesand the world of EAP, and in L1 teaching in Australia. There are plenty of papersappearing in journals and in more theoretical books. Much of what has been writtenis applying or further researching issues raised in Swales’ book Genre Analysis (English in academic and research settings) , which was published in 1990.

Although there are no resource books for teachers that explicitly refer to genre basedteaching, influences are felt in mainstream ELT in the attention paid to the teachingof different genres in, for example, exam class syllabuses. For example, all FCEcoursebooks teach a range of genres (informal letters, stories, formal letters ofapplication, formal letters of complaint and so on).

In terms of a genre approach to teaching writing, the emphasis is firstly on identifyingappropriate genres for the learners. The procedure followed in teaching variesslightly but often includes the following kind of steps: exposing the learners toexamples of the genre, analysing the text (social context, purpose, text organisationand language features). The learners then produce partial texts with support fromother learners or the teacher. The final stage is the construction of their own text.

It has some similarities to a product approach and can be viewed as an extension ofthis. However, compared to the product approach, it places more emphasis onauthenticity in the texts, on the communication and style aspects of each type of text,and most importantly, on the effect on the target reader. (Although these were afeature of the product approach too, it was a sign of the times, perhaps, that the‘composition’ aspects were often more emphasised in practice).

The genre approach can be viewed in a sense as a reaction against the processapproach, with its focus on the writer and the processes of creating texts. However,in practice there may well be influences from the process approach, for example inthe drafting process.

For more information about the genre approach, read Tribble, C. Writing chapter 6.

3.5. Conclusions about different approaches to writing

You have now looked at the main three approaches to teaching writing that havedeveloped over the last twenty years or so. Do the next task to check your overallunderstanding of each one.



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TASK 7: Identifying Approaches to Teaching Writing (10mins)

Look at these three invented descriptions of writing classes. Which lesson isbased on a product approach? Which on a process approach? Which on a genreapproach?

Lesson one:

Students are asked about their experience of applying for jobs. They are thenasked to brainstorm the kind of content in a letter of application. They do this ingroups and ideas are elicited onto the board. They are then shown a job advertand they suggest the kind of person who might apply. In groups they then fast-write a draft of a letter of application for that job from what they consider to be apotential applicant. Groups swap letters and make comments about the order ofinformation, the layout and the language. Each group then writes a second draftbearing in mind the comments that have been made. After another group editingstage the final draft is produced and then copied by the teacher. The classdecides who is the best applicant.

Lesson two:

The students read a job advert and a letter of application for that job. They fill ina grid with information about the person applying and assess his/her suitabilityfor the job. They then focus on some of the expressions used and do some workon tenses (present perfect/past simple). They then carry out a gap fill exercisewhere they fill in the gaps in another letter of application for the same job. Theyare then given another job advert and produce their own letter of application.

Lesson three:

The teacher asks the students about their experience of applying for jobs. Thestudents are then shown three authentic examples of letters of application for a

particular job. They discuss the context of these texts, considering the purposeof writing and who the reader is. They also look at the type of language used,looking at the ordering of information, some of the grammatical aspects,vocabulary and expressions used perhaps using a concordancer. They wouldthen begin to produce their own texts for another given job advert. Finally,working individually, they would produce their own complete letters ofapplication.

See Appendix 6.

The examples above are designed to differentiate the three approaches. In practice,however, you will probably find that you use elements from each.

The product approach focuses on the text. The process approach emphasises thesteps involved in creating a written text and the genre based approach focuses onthe relationship between the text and its reader (or even society as a whole).

But there are also common themes in the different approaches. For example, whilethe main focus of a product approach was on linguistic form, there was also anawareness of communicative purpose and desired effect on the reader. Both Hedgeand White and Arndt, in their process approaches to writing, use ‘model texts’ albeit itat a different stage in the writing process. The genre approach has much in common



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with the product approach with its reliance on model texts and analysis althoughfeatures from the process approach can easily be included at the writing stage.

Although the approaches evolved from different theories of learning and views on therole of the learner, and often partly as a reaction against each other, they do notneed to be viewed as completely opposing. Rather they differ in their emphasis onaspects of the writing skill and can in fact be viewed as complementary. Badger andWhite propose a ‘process genre’ model of writing which, rather than seeing the threeapproaches as conflicting, views them as complementary and takes the best fromeach.

If you are interested, read their article:

Badgers, R. & White, G. April 2000 A process genre approach to teaching writing ELTJ 54/2

TASK 8: Considering your own practice (20mins)

Look back at the notes you made for task 6 about how you approached somewriting tasks with your students. Can you identify elements from any of the threeapproaches (product, process, genre) you have read about? If you werepreparing students for these writing tasks again, is there anything you could orwould do differently? If you can, discuss your ideas with a colleague.

Before you go on to the next section it may be useful to check on your familiarity withcertain terminology used in talking about writing and teaching writing.

4. Teaching writing sub-skills

Good writing does not usually develop naturally. Learners who are good writers intheir own language may stand a better chance of writing effectively in Englishparticularly in terms of the processes used in producing a text, but they may still faceproblems in other areas. For example, as you have read, there may be differentconventions within a genre among different cultures. There is also the problem oflanguage. If we want our learners to become proficient writers then we need toensure that we teach writing, and specific aspects of the writing skill, not just test it.There are many ways in which we can do this.

4.1. Identifying Sub-skills

As well as working on producing whole texts, we also need to help learners with workon specific aspects of writing, or sub-skills. In section 2 we looked at what effectivewriters need to know: knowledge of genre, knowledge of language systems, and

knowledge of the process of writing. We can break these areas of knowledge downinto writing sub-skills.



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TASK 9: Writing Sub-skills (15mins)

Look at the following list of sub-skills. Can you classify them according to whetherthey relate to knowledge of genre, language systems or of writing processes?

The ability to:• Organise content in a coherent way

• Use punctuation correctly, including hyphens, inverted commas etc.

• Gather any information (related to content) that is needed, prior to writing

• Select appropriate content for the genre

• Follow established conventions in the organisation of the content

• Revise and edit the text

• Correct errors of content or language

• Lay the text out in an appropriate way

• Use appropriate grammar/vocabulary to express intended meaning

• Spell correctly

• Use paragraphs or other means (headings, listings etc) to clarify organisation

• Make the purpose/message of the text clear

• Organise content logically within paragraphs

• Write in a way that is appropriate to the reader of the text, in terms of content and

style• Compose the text and write drafts as necessary

• Get the intended message across

• Write with a high degree of accuracy in lexis and grammar

• Use appropriate language to express the message

• Vary the language used to avoid repetition (unless done for effect)

• Use a range of cohesive devices to link the message of the text (logical,grammatical, lexical)

• Write legibly

• Produce the Roman script

• Plan the writing (some types may not require this, other longer pieces of writingmay need a lot of planning)

See Appendix 7.



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4.2. Writing activities for developing sub-skills

In your reading about different approaches to teaching writing you should havealready come across some classroom activities to help learners develop these skills.These activities will include some which focus on language systems, others on genreand text type and others on writing processes. They will include recognition as wellas production activities. Some will be integrated into a writing lesson or they may belinked in to other kinds of lessons (e.g. spelling activities may be used when you wantto revise a lexical set).

TASK 10: Identifying the Aim of Writing Activities (30mins)

Look at the different writing activities in Appendix 8. What aspects of the writingskill or sub-skills do they aim to develop?

See Appendix 13 for suggested answers.

TASK 11: Brainstorming Teaching Ideas (30 mins)

Now try to think of more activities for helping learners with different aspects ofthe writing skill. Think back to your own experience. You may also want to referto coursebooks and supplementary books (see section at the end of this one onwriting) for ideas and look at the following:

Harmer, J. How to Teach Writing Pearson Longman

Hedge, T. Writing (2 nd edition) Oxford University Press

White, R. & Arndt, V. Process Writing Longman

Tribble, C. Writing Oxford University Press

Post your two favourite ideas (which should be different from anything alreadythere) under any of the following headings on the study group discussion forumon the DELTA website.

Aim: Developing awareness of genre.

Aim: Developing knowledge of language systems.

Aim: Developing knowledge of writing processes.

5. Evaluating writing tasks

We have seen that good writing involves a lot more than just a knowledge of thelanguage. We said previously that it involves knowledge of genre (content andcontext), and knowledge of writing processes as well as linguistic knowledge (seesection 2). It follows then that if materials are purporting to teach writing as a skill,



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then the tasks in student materials need to deal with these different aspects.However, sometimes writing activities assume that the student already has thenecessary skills and they simply provide practice in using written English.

TASK 12: Reading (20-30mins)

Read Tribble, C. Writing , chapter 7, and answer this question:

What is the difference between ‘learning to write’ activities and ‘writing to learn’activities?

See Appendix 9 for a suggested answer.

We will now consider how we can evaluate published materials for teaching writing.

TASK 13: Making a Checklist for Evaluating Writing Tasks (15-20mins)

Can you devise a checklist for evaluating writing tasks? What would you expecta good writing task to include?

See suggested answer in Appendix 10 and also Hedge Writing p 163.

In question 3 in the exam you are asked to evaluate teaching materials. It is alsosomething you need to do when you are selecting materials to use with your

students.

TASK 14: Evaluating Writing Tasks (40mins)

Look at the writing tasks in Appendix 11. They all require learners to produce atext of some kind. How far do they help students learn to write that kind of text?How might you supplement or adapt them to make them more effective for yourstudents?

See Appendix 12 for comments on the materials.

6. Useful books for using in the classroom

Many coursebooks nowadays deal reasonably well with teaching writing. Thefollowing books are worth mentioning, however, as providing some usefulsupplementary writing activities.



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Burbridge, N., Gray, P. Levy, S. & Rinvolucri M. 1996 Letters Oxford UniversityPress

Varied ideas for prompting letter writing.

Cory, H. 1996 Advanced Writing with English in Use CAE Oxford University Press

Very useful.it takes a thorough approach to the analysis of a range of genres andprovides a range of writing tasks as practice.

Cranmer, D. 1996 Motivating Advanced Learners Longman (out of print)

Not specifically a writing skills book but it has some interesting activities for raisingstudents’ awareness of what is involved in effective writing at an advanced level.

Emmerson, P 2004 Email English Macmillan

Not only good for emails but excellent on writing skills in general

Evans, V. 1998, New Edition 2004, Successful Writing Proficiency , ExpressPublishing

Evans, V. 1998, New Edition 2004, Successful Writing Upper Intermediate ,Express Publishing

Very user-friendly work on a variety of genres suitable for FCE, CAE and Proficiency

Grellet, F. 1996 Writing for Advanced Learners of English Cambridge UniversityPress

Creative writing tasks

Hadfield, C. & Hadfield J. 1990 Writing Games Nelson

Does not teach writing but provides some imaginative prompts for content.

MacAndrew R. & Lawday C. 1993 Cambridge First Certificate Writing CambridgeUniversity Press

Covers the text types needed for the exam.

O’Dell, F. 1996 CAE Writing Skills Cambridge University Press

Covers the text types needed for the exam



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Stephens, M. 1996 Practise Writing Longman

Straightforward model text approach for intermediate level.

Stephens, M. 1992 Practise Advanced Writing Longman

Uses essentially a model text approach for more advanced learners.

Natural English Series

Clementson, T. 2006 Natural English Reading and Writing Skills: Elementary Oxford University Press

Clementson, T. 2005 Natural English Reading and Writing Skills: Pre-Intermediate Oxford University Press

Baigent, M. 2005 Natural English Reading and Writing Skills: Intermediate Oxford University Press

Baigent, M. 2006 Natural English Reading and Writing Skills: Upper-Intermediate Oxford University Press

Oxford Supplementary Skills series (all Oxford University Press):

Gruber, D. & Dunn, V. 1987 Writing, Elementary

Boutin, M. C., Brinand, S. & Grellet, F. 1987 Writing Intermediate

Nolasco, R. 1987 Writing Upper Intermediate

White, R. 1987 Writing Advanced

Focus on different genres and writing processes. Useful, though dense.

Longman Skills Series (some may be out of print)

Tribble, C. 1989 Word for Word (elementary)

Hopkins, A. & Tribble, C. 1989 Outlines (pre-intermediate)

Hopkins, A. 1989 Perspectives (intermediate)

Useful for lower levels, varied approaches to tasks. Easy to use.

Cambridge Skills for Fluency

Littlejohn, A. 1991 Writing 1,2

Littlejohn, A. 1993 Writing 3

Littlejohn, A. 1994 Writing 4



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Imaginative ideas for process approach. I find it a bit difficult to find my way around inthese books but there are some good ideas.

7. Terminology Review

The definitions below all refer to concepts from this section. Supply the term beingdefined. There is an example provided.

Example. A piece of writing which retells a series of past events, such as anenecdote, story, joke, news report etc - NARRATIVE

1. A piece of writing with a recognisable structure which may be used by aparticular section of society or within a particular profession. It is likely tohave a clearly-discernible structure and layout and may employ instantlyrecognisable language. Examples include newspaper report, recipe,horoscopes, travel guides, memos etc .

2. A system of writing which employs a set of recognisable characters, such asRoman, Cyrillic, Greek, Arabic, Chinese etc.

3. An approach to writing where the focus is on the final text produced, oftenafter analysing and imitating a model text of the same sort.

4. An approach to writing where the stages followed in order to produce the finaltext are of paramount importance.

See Appendix 14 for answers.



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Reading

Essential Reading:

Hedge, T. 2005 Writing (2 nd edition) Oxford University Press

Raimes, A. 1983 Techniques in Teaching Writing Oxford University Press

Tribble, C. 1996 Writing Oxford University Press

White, R. & Arndt, V. 1991 Process Writing Longman

Recommended Additional Reading:

Ball, W. October 1986 Writing English Script: an overlooked skill ELTJ 40/4

Badger, R. & White, G. April 2000 A process genre approach to teaching writing

ELTJ 54/2Byrne, D. 1979 Teaching Writing Skills Longman

Cresswell, A. July 2000 Self-monitoring in student writing: developing learnerresponsibility ELTJ 54/3

Davies, G. & Widdowson, H. in Allen, J. P. B., & Pit Corder, S. (Eds) 1974Edinburgh Course In Applied Linguistics 3 Oxford University Press

Fulcher et al July 1996 It made me think MET 5/3

Harmer, J. 2004 How to Teach Writing Pearson Longman

Kay, H. & Dudley-Evans, T. 1998 Genre: what teachers think ELTJ 52/4

Littlewood, W. 1997 From proverbs to essays: developing students’ awarenessof rhetorical structure MET 6/1

Lonon Blanton, L. April 1987 Reshaping ESL students’ perceptions of writing ELTJ 41/2

Mc Devitt, D. Jan 1989 How to cope with spaghetti writing ELTJ 43/1

McGarrell, H. & Verbeem, J. 2007 Motivating Revision of Drafts throughFormative Feedback in ELTJ 61/3

Paltridge, B. 1996 Genre, text type and the language learning classroom ELTJ50/3

Pincas, A. 1982 Teaching English Writing Macmillan

Piper, A. April 1987 Helping learners to write: a role for the word processor ELTJ41/2

Rinvolucri, M. April 1995 Language students as letter writers ELTJ 49/2

Sassoon, R. 1995 The Acquisition of a Second Writing System Intellect,Chapters 1 and 2



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Swales, J. 1990 Genre Analysis Cambridge University Press

Taylor, L. October 1997 Teaching writing-teaching culture ETP Issue 3 & Issue 5

NB: See also the previous section on practical teaching ideas.



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Appendices

Appendix 1: Student Survey about Writing

Student Survey: Please circle the appropriate response

1. What is important for you in learning English? Circle the appropriate response.

Speaking English very important quite important not very important

Listening to English very important quite important not very important

Reading English very important quite important not very important

Writing in English very important quite important not very important

Learning grammar very important quite important not very important

Learning vocabulary very important quite important not very important

Other________________________________________________________

2. What kinds of texts do you write in your own language? Make a list here.

3. What do you have to write in English (in your job, in your life, or at school/collegeetc.) that is, things that are not directly associated with this English course? Tick

as appropriate.• Fill in forms

• Business letters

• Reports

• Personal letters

• Emails/faxes

• Essays

Other

4. What kind of texts do you have to write for your English classes?

5. When your English teacher asks you to write in English, what do you think is themain purpose? Tick one or more.

• To remember new language



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• To practise grammar and vocabulary

• To know how to write different kinds of texts in English that you can use in ‘reallife’

• To help you pass exams

•

To test you on your grammar, spelling etc.• To help you express ideas clearly in writing

• To help you with the writing skill even in your own language

Other____________________________________________________________

6. Which of these opinions do you agree with? Tick the ones you agree with. Youcan write comments if you want to.

• Writing is quite easy.

• I find writing very difficult.

• Being able to write in English is an important part of knowing the language.

• Writing isn’t very important.

• Writing is boring.

• I really enjoy writing.

• I can learn from my mistakes in writing.

Other_____________________________________________________________

7. What is most difficult for you about writing? Tick the ones that are difficult. Addyour own ideas if you want.

• Getting ideas

• Choosing the right words

• Knowing what information to include

• Writing neatly

• Writing in the appropriate style

• Finding the time to write• Organising your ideas

• Spelling correctly

• Using grammar correctly

Other



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Appendix 2: Talking about Good and Bad Writing



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Commentary on the Proficiency student’s writing

• Task achievement, you feel you know the person description conjures up a vividimage of this person.

• Content is organised, clear purpose to each paragraph, sense of logicaldevelopment the text flows well. Effective beginning, creates interests andsustains it throughout, hints at sad ending, well finished

A very clearly structured piece of writing

• Very good range of vocabulary, appropriate literary style, good collocation

• Minimal errors of any kind.

• Suggests it was written by someone who reads a lot of literature in English



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Appendix 3: Talking about good and bad writing



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Commentary on the FCE Student’s writing:

• Some knowledge of the genre, overall purpose is clear.

• Formulaic phrases applied but content is not fleshed out.

• Some awareness of appropriate organisation but purpose of each paragraphcould be made more explicit.

• Too few linking devices.

• Spelling and grammatical problems.

• Does not sound natural (lack of appropriate collocations).

• Writer does not seem very aware of reader requirements, evidence of immaturity.

• Legible.

• Grammatical problems e.g. word order in indirect questions etc.



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Appendix 4: How do you teach Writing?



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From Aspinall, T. And Capel, A. Advanced Masterclass CAE OUP

Unit 10 Pages 128, 129



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Appendix 5: Pincas’s Essential Writing Skills

(Based on Pincas, A. 1982 Teaching English Writing Macmillan

Communication between people Teacher selects and demonstratesrelevant varieties of English

Helps identify specific communicativefunction of the text

Helps identify reader

Suiting a specific subject Teacher tries to find a life-likecommunicative aim for a piece ofwriting on the given topic

Presenting ideas Teacher should raise awareness ofthe need for clear presentation ofideas. Some of the major logicalfunctions that a writer needs toexpress are:

Description of features:

Definition, classification, description

Description and/or explanation of aprocess

Sequence of Events

Cause-effect or Effect-causeReasons for activities or states ofaffairs

Similarities

Contrasts

Generalisations and related facts

Hypotheses and Arguments for them

For and against

Constructing sentences Show students how sentences areused in text, give practice in usingthem in controlled and less controlledexercises, then students will use themin free writing

Using paragraphs Teach students to, arrange ideaslogically, use appropriate openings



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and closings for paragraphs, useappropriate linking devices

Using linking devices (cohesion) Teach ways of establishing linksbetween sentences and paragraphs

Reference, conjunction, substitution,lexical relationships, patterning

Writing in the four major styles:narrative, description, exposition,argument

The students need to see examplesof the way styles of writing arestructured and to practise them

Achieving the desired degree offormality

Students need to learn features offormal and informal writing(vocabulary, structures etc)

Creating the desired emotive tone i.e. the effect that the writer wants tohave on the reader and the

impression he/she wishes to create

Teacher needs to demonstrateexamples and create contexts toprovide practice

Appendix 6: Identifying Approaches to Teaching Writing

• Lesson one is based on a process approach

•

Lesson two is based on a product approach• Lesson three is based on a genre approach

Appendix 7: Writing Subskills

Subskills related to knowledge of genre:

• Organise content in a coherent way

• Select appropriate content for the genre

• Follow established conventions in the organisation of the content

• Use paragraphs or other means (headings, listings etc.) to clarify organisation

• Make the purpose/message of the text clear

• Lay the text out in an appropriate way

• Organise content logically within paragraphs

• Write in a way that is appropriate to the reader of the text, in terms of content andstyle



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Sub-skills related to knowledge of language systems:

• Use punctuation correctly, including hyphens, inverted commas etc. Useappropriate grammar/vocabulary to express intended meaning

• Get the intended message across

•

Write with a high degree of accuracy in lexis and grammar• Spell correctly

• Use appropriate language to express the message

• Vary the language used to avoid repetition (unless done for effect)

• Use a range of cohesive devices to link the message of the text (logical,grammatical, lexical)

• Write legibly

• Produce the Roman script

Subskills related to knowledge of writing processes:

• Plan the writing (some types may not require this, other longer pieces of writingmay need a lot of planning)

• Gather any information (related to content) that is needed, prior to writing

• Compose the text and write drafts as necessary

• Revise and edit the text

• Correct errors of content or language



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Appendix 8: Identifying the aim of writing activities



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From Soars, L. & Soars, J. 2000 Headway Elementary Workbook Oxford UniversityPress p75



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From Doff, A & Jones, C. Language in Use intermediate Cambridge UniversityPress p18



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Greenall, S. Reward Upper Intermediate Heinemann p53



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Littlejohn, A. Writing 3 Cambridge University Press p20-1



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Appendix 9: Reading

‘If a task provides little or no means for students to extend theirknowledge of appropriate content, to investigate and learn about thecontext, to enhance their understanding of the language system or tobecome more skilled as writers, even though they have to write in order

to complete the task, it is more likely to be one that is using writing tolearn the language.’


In other words, writing to learn means that the task requires students to write but thetask does not develop the skill of writing in any overt way.

Learning to write means that the writing task develops in some way their knowledgeof genre (understanding content and the reader-writer relationship), their knowledgeof the kind of language used in the task and appropriate writing processes for thiskind of task. The students are helped in the process of learning to write.

Appendix 10: Making a Checklist for Evaluating Writing Tasks

Your checklist may include the following points and others:

• The task is relevant to your students’ needs.

• The task is motivating.

• The text has a clear communicative purpose.

• The text exemplifies a particular genre.

• Students are provided with opportunities to generate ideas.

• Students are provided with models or guidelines about how the text should be.

• Language support is available.

• The instructions for the task are clear.

• Students are given ideas on how to proceed with the task.

• Students are given opportunities to revise and edit their work.

• There is a clear teaching/ learning aim.

• Students have the possibility of personal input into the task.

•

The methodology is motivating (variety of stages, interaction, materials etc.).



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Appendix 11: Evaluating Writing Tasks (texts)

From Cunningham, S. & Moor P. 1998 Cutting Edge Intermediate Longman p87



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From: Soars, J. & L. 2000 New Headway Elementary Workbook , OUP, p75



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From Prodromou, L. 1998 First Certificate Star Heinemann p57



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Appendix 12: Evaluating Writing Tasks (suggested comments)

1. Writing thank you letters from Cunningham, S and Moor P.1998 Cutting Edge intermediate Longman Page 87.

Relevance of task: the task deals with different types/styles of thank you letters andnotes, both formal and informal and different situations. The students can choosewhich type they want to actually write so they are able to choose one that is mostrelevant to their own needs. There is a clear communicative purpose and the texts doexemplify particular genres. There is room for personal input into the task. One taskrequires learners to examine the content of a model text, a second task requiresthem to match types of thank you note/letter to extracts.

There is little in the way of language support in terms of producing language of theappropriate style to complete the letter/note. Learners are expected to already knowappropriate endings for informal/formal letters, for example. No guidance is givenhere on the process of writing. (The teacher could easily do this by getting studentsto write a letter, get a classmate to check it etc.).

2. Once Upon a Time- a fairy story from Soars, L. & Soars, J. 2000 HeadwayElementary Workbook Oxford University Press page 75 (page 71 old edition).

The text given here, the Princess and the Frog, exemplifies a specific genre - fairystories. The students are required to produce another fairy story. The students areprovided with a model. They are provided with the fixed opening and closing phrasefor their story.

The initial gapfill task focuses on lexis and grammar (learners have to choose thecorrect word in terms of meaning and form). They are told to use these kinds ofwords in their own stories. There is no help given with the process of writing (i.e.brainstorming ideas, for example, reminding each other of fairy stories, drafting,editing etc.) although this could be introduced by the teacher and the students couldalso be asked to write in pairs. Fairy stories generally have very typical characters,locations etc. although there is no work given here on this. Again, the teacher couldintroduce a task of brainstorming locations, characters, events etc. typical of thegenre (with reference to the names of characters in the stories the students knowand want to write about).

The relevance of the task to adult learners is questionable- it is an unlikely real lifetask but, on the other hand, even adults enjoy stories, and they do have a kind ofeternal significance. I would enjoy this task! (but maybe not all adults would).Themain aim though seems to be language practice i.e. writing to learn rather thanlearning to write.

3. Writing Exam Practice: Opinion composition from Prodromou, L. 1998 First

Certificate Star Heinemann Page 57

The task has definite relevance to students doing the First Certificate exam, and is atypical writing activity in language classes although it is doubtful whether this kind ofwriting task has much relevance beyond the classroom. There is room for personalinvestment since students can write about their own opinions. A model text isprovided. Guidance is given on organising the piece of writing and the students arealso given some expressions or sentence heads to use.



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The approach is not terribly motivating. There is one task where the students have todivide the model text into paragraphs. Otherwise everything is ‘given’. The teachercould exploit the model text more, and get the students to pick out useful sentenceheads from this, then brainstorm further expressions. The guidelines remind thestudents to plan and to check for errors. Other than this, there is no guidance for thewriting process. The teacher could introduce this however by getting students tobrainstorm ideas for content, by introducing fast writing, writing in pairs etc. Thestudents may also get stuck on finding the lexis they need for the task since they arerequired to write about a completely different topic (protecting the environment) fromthat in the model.

Appendix 13: Key to Identifying the Aim of Writing Activities

Text 1. Language systems

The focus is on conjunctions which are used to link ideas in a text.

Text 2. Genre

The focus is on the layout and language features of a job application letter.Text 3. Language systems

The focus is on practising the past simple passive, used in the genre of newsreporting. No overt attention is drawn to the features of the genre.

Text 4. Language systems

Making sentences using conditional type sentences.

Text 5. Writing processes

A previous activity focuses on the genre of haiku. This activity helps the studentsthrough the process of composing one of their own.

Appendix 14: Terminology Review

1. Genre

2. Script

3. Product Approach

4. Process Approach

Unit4_section2 Writing 1

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