The Fourth Day...

Focused Free-writing: 

     If you could determine the age at which you will die, but with no guarantees regarding health or money, how old would you like to be when you go?  Explain. 
  


The topic for this evening.  Usually, when students write about this topic, I have a couple of students that choose the same age.  Majority of my students choose the age of 88, or 92.  The two ages seem to be the most popular.  The main reason for choosing this age is that they want to see their children grow, and see their children's children.  We'll see what they have to say...

The Writing Process

Today we went over The Writing Process.  I went over the basic steps, finding an idea (pre-writing), drafting, self-editing, revising (re-writing), teacher-edit, and publishing. 

Step 1: Pre-writing THINK 
Step 2: Drafting WRITE
Step 3: Revising MAKE IT BETTER
Step 4: Proofreading MAKE IT CORRECT
Step 5 Publishing SHARE THE FINISHED PRODUCT

Many times, when we look at a book, we do not see the process the writer used to make the book possible.  What we see in print might have been rewritten many times.  The writing process is a process all writers use, most writers go back and forth through the major stages of writing, sometimes with many drafts to prove it.  I hope my students come away from the writing process with the idea, there is no ONE correct way to write.  We just need to get in there and start WRITING!

In the Pre-writing stage we plan what we are going to write.  We choose a topic, identify our audience and purpose, brainstorm ideas and organize information.  The Drafting stage we write our ideas in sentences and paragraphs.  Follow our pre-writing plan to write a first draft of our composition.  In the Revising stage we are looking at our writing with different eyes.  Hopefully at this point, we have taken a break from what we have written so far.  I suggest maybe a day, take a break, go for a walk, take a nap (remember I mentioned nap, don't fall asleep for seven hours, it doesn't constitute a nap).  This stage is the first part of editing our writing, we may work by ourselves or with a partner or a group.  Make changes that will improve our writing.  If early on in the semester, we are not comfortable sharing our writing with our peers, we don't need to share.  But towards mid-semester, we should be more or less comfortable with each other, and begin to share more freely.  The Proofreading stage we finish our editing by polishing our work.  Check for errors in grammar, spelling, capitalization, and punctuation.  We should as much as possible make a final copy of our composition, which will lead us to the next stage.  The Publishing stage, finally we choose a way to present our work to an audience.  Ways to publish include: reading our work aloud, sending it to the newspaper, posting it to a blog, putting it on Facebook or simply giving it to a friend to read.  (Yes, Facebook does count, there are sections there for notes, or even attaching messages, which are lengthy.)  Many times, when we reach the last stage in the writing process, after going through many drafts, of editing, revising, we would want to take pride in our work and PUBLISH!  I highly encourage my students to publish their work, especially when their writing is very effective.

I also handed out our writing folders today, and gave the students directions as to where/how (proper protocol) to submit their work.  They are always welcome to email me their drafts, and I will be more than willing to edit them outside of class.   Hopefully they take advantage of email. 

Images taken from: http://writing.pppst.com/writingprocess.html,