Teaching Writing: With clarity and focus
“It’s not wise to violate the rules until you know how to observe them.” T.S Elliot
“When we encounter a natural style, we are astonished and delighted; for we expected to find an author - and we find a man [woman]!” Blaise Pascal
Section 1: Key Writing Concepts
By the end of this first section, tutors will have looked at ways to pass on key writing concepts so learners can plan, write, revise and edit anything from short answers in workbooks and filling in forms to longer paragraphs in reports and essays.
This first section deals with teaching learners to:
- use a simple ‘Is-it-a-sentence’ checklist for each sentence
- use a simple ‘Is-it-a-paragraph’ checklist for each paragraph
- think about indenting
Section 2: How to Write Paragraphs
By the end of section two, you will have worked step-by-step through ways of teaching learners how to write paragraphs using two basic paragraph structures.
Tutors can apply this information to:
teach how paragraphs are constructed covering points such as:
- there is one main idea for each paragraph (or two closely linked ideas);
- the focus of the whole paragraph is controlled via the topic sentence;
- a topic sentence is constructed with both a topic and a controlling focus
build learner confidence and skill by:
- modelling paragraph writing process: 3 ways to write a paragraph
- focusing on topic sentence construction initially
- providing activities for learners to explore how using the same topic yet a different controlling focus leads to different paragraph content.