The Writing Process
Abell & Atherton Educational
Consulting, Inc.
Prewriting
• Talking (sharing ideas, discussion of topic and
their views, role-playing, persuasion, etc.)
• Reading and analyzing models (backmapping,
analysis of format and development, etc.)
• Brainstorming
– Mapping
– Planning
– Webbing
– Story boarding, etc.
• Creating a writer’s plan, which considers audience,
purpose, format, and ideas
• Researching
Drafting
• Modeling
– Use
• Other students’ writing
• Professional writing
• Your writing
• Provide ample time and space to write
• Provide tools to make drafting more fun and easier
(post it notes, gel pens, tape, scissors, etc.)
• Conference with students throughout
• Remind students of the importance of treating
drafting as a step separate from editing
Revising
• Help students to learn to try a new approach if
the one they’ve tried isn’t working.
• Make sure all the anticipated needs of the
audience are met for the particular purpose/
text.
• Model each revision strategy using your own work;
then send students back to revise their own.
• Have revision conferences in which students come
to you with a question
• Use sentence combining to build complex
sentences
• Use ARMS to help writers understand what
“revision” means
ARMS
• Add – (details, snapshots, dialogue,
examples, etc.)
• Remove – (distractors, unnecessary
dialogue, details that don’t fit, weak ideas)
• Move – (words, phrases, sentences,
paragraphs)
• Substitute – (more powerful words,
stronger verbs for adverbs)
Editing
• Model and practice editing together
• Use students’ own work as good models or as drill
for sentence error correction
• Teach editing skills throughout the year
• Give students self-editing checklists
• Set up editing groups, with an “expert” in charge
of each main focus (Capitalization, punctuation,
etc.)
• Use sentence combining exercises for editing as
well as revising skills.
• Have editing conferences, focusing on only one
correctness issue at a time
• Use CUPS
CUPS
•
•
•
•
Capitalization
Usage
Punctuation
Spelling
Publishing
“If you give
writers
only one
thing, give
them an
audience.”
Peter
Elbow
• Technology and the internet
(Blogs, webcasts, web pages,
etc.)
• Exchange writing with other
classes and students
• Read to principal
• Display on community or school
bulletin board
• Author’s chair
• Mail or e-mail
• Newsletters
• Media center
• Pop-up or blank books for the
school library
• Pen pals
• Gifts