Writing is a challenging and complex skill.

Like speaking, it entails the production of 1deas in the most

organized manner. But, unlike speaking, where one can digress from the topic or use an ad lib to enliven
the discussion, writing requires staying tocused on the topic Sentence or the thesis statement.

Teaching writing, according to Baggot (2012: 3), is "a complex process for most teachers and often a
difficult and demanding task for students to master."

Purposes of Teaching Writing

Writing is often taken as a task integrated with other communication skillslike reading.
Harmer (1998:79) offered four purposes of teaching writing, namely:"reinforcement, language
development, learning style and as a skill of its own."
a. Reinforcement. Writing is considered as one of the ways of helping a language learners remember
and even improve their fluency in the target language.
b. Language Development. Harmer (1998) asserts that learning a language is a process. He recognized
that writing, like the other communication skills, is done in stages or procedural steps.
c. Learning Style. Our understanding of Gardners Multiple Intelligences theory would tell us that
students differ in the way they learn.
d. Writing as a skill. It has to be taught for its being. Writing as a skill cannot be acquired or mastered
overnight.

Graham, MacArthur, and Fitzgerald (2007) have offered four principles in writing instruction.
They reminded us that writing is essential,"and as such, we are challenged to do a better job in teaching
it: we need to know what skilled writing looks like" and must have a collection of"effective writing
procedures for teaching writing."
a. The essence of writing. Writing, according to Graham et al. (2007), an effective and versatile means of
communication. It allows us to persuade our audience or explain to them ideas as simple as cooking
your favorite food or following a diet regimen.
b. The need for effective writing instruction. Having pointed out the essence of writing, Graham et al,
also that is grounded on research.
Saavedra (2020) one done recent researches regarding our learners' writing skills which abstract
revealed the following:
1) lack of vocabulary Based on in the target language;
2) difficulty in conveying and organizing ideas;
3) pupils' perception that writing is a hard task;
4) lack of motivation and interest in writing,
5) the difficulty in spelling, grammar and sentence construction are the reasons why
many elementary pupils have poor writing skills in English and Filino.
c. Knowledge of effective writing. As earlier established, our own knowledge and skills are the limits to
the things we can teach to our students.
d. Effective writing procedures for teaching writing. We are also challenged to research beyond the
context and reality of our learners' writing skills.
Perspectives on the Nature of Writing and Writing Instruction
Writing as a means of communication has the potential to change not only one's worldview but the
world itself.

The examples of the power of writing:

• Noli Me Tangere (1887) of Jose Rizal,
• An Inconvenient Truth (2006) by Al Gore and Greta Thunberg's social media posts on climate change.

Yagelski (2018:8) purports the four ways of understanding writing. He said that: "Writing is a
powerful means of communication; Writing is a way to participation; Writing is a unique way of thinking
that helps us learn, and Writing a way to understand ourselves and the world around us."
There are two major schools of thought in viewing writing instruction:
1. writing as cognitive ability vs. writing as a sociological phenomenon
a. Cognitive ability. To view writing as a cognitive ability meanstaking into account both the writing
ability and the linguistic proficiency of the learner (Weigle, 2014).
b. Sociological Phenomenon. This view on writing, according to Weigle (2014:224), recognizes that
writing is "done for a purpose, is directed at a Specific audience. and is part of a broader set literacy
practices... shaped by a particular culture and setting.
2. writing as a product vs. writing as a process.
a. Writing as a Product. If we take this view in teaching writing, we are more concerned about the
students' output. Also called genre writing approach, this perspective in teaching writing pays attention
to the correctness of the students' grammar or their structure.
Dirgeyasa (2016, citing Thoreau,2006) defines genre-based writing as a kind of writing which "has a
typical style, particular target of readers, and a specific purpose."
Tompkins (2008), writing genres include Journal writing, biographical writing, letter writing, expository,
narrative, descriptive, poetry, and persuasive writing.
Zakime (2018) finds the product approach in teaching writing time-efficient because its primary aim is
accuracy; therefore, the teacher has a focus skill to correct.
b. Writing as a Process. This view takes into account the different stages of writing as a way of
developing writing skills.
Langan (2014:41),Writing as a process involves five basic steps, namely:
1.pre-writing,
2. organizing ideas or outlining the paper,
3. drafting,
4. revising,
5. editing.
Pre-writing. This step involves choosing the topic and the generation of ideas for writing. Choosing a
topic is crucial especially if the writing activity is done within the given class time.
Langan further offers four pre-writing activities, which include:
1. freewriting or writing without restrictions,
2. listing,
3. brainstorming,
4. clustering

Organizing ideas. In this stage, we assist our students in planning or outlining the ideas they have
generated during the pre-writing stage.
Writing the draft. This refers to the development of the key ideas outlined in the previous stage.
Revising. Effective writers re-read their work to revise content and structure. This stage asks the writers
to check the substance of their claims and the smooth flow of the development of their ideas.
Editing. This stage in writing prepares the writing output for final submission. This requires polishing of
grammar, mechanics, and style.

With these processes in mind, we need to remind our students that effective writing considers
subject, audience, and purpose in order to put the message across (Langan, 2008).
Subject. This is the idea that we want to talk or write about.
Purpose. Influential writers purposely utilize their extensive collection of ideas.
Audience. A writer always has an audience in mind. In the school set up, the audience can be the
teacher who reads and grades the writing output or fellow students who share the same passion on the
chosen subject.

The Mechanics of Writing

Writing in the second language begins in understanding the writing systemand the mechanics of
writing.
a. Letter recognition is the ability to distinguish a letter from the othe letters in the alphabet and is a
foundation in learning to read and write the language.
b. Letter discrimination is the ability to distinguish similar-looking letters like b and d or letters like t and
f.
c. Sound-to-leiter correspondence. This mechanics in writing reters to the matching of the sound with
the letters or symbol.
d. Word recognition. The complex sound-to-letter correspondence often results in the learner's problem
in word recognition, which is the ability to quickly identify and read the written word.
e. Basic rules of spelling. An efective writer demonstrates fiuency in. spelling, but to some of our
learners, this could be a tedious task, especially if they have not mastered the first four of these
mechanics.
Olshtain (2014), writing system can be classified as either meaning-based or sound-based. Meaning-
based system can be exemplified by the Chinese and the Japanese Kanji, where the graphic character
represents real-world meaning.
Kroll, as cited in Weigle (2014:229), lists the essential tasks of a writing teacher. These are "designing or
implementing a syllabus, planning the individual class session, providing opportunities for writing and
responding to that writing."
In designing the writing syllabus, we need to consider the following factors.
a. A feasible scope of the writing task. This requires us to think through the writing tasks by looking at
the needs of our leamers and their background. We must give them writing tasks that they can manage
in terms of breadth and depth.
b. A writing task that promotes academic integrity. In this 'age of copy-and-paste, we need to prepare
writing prompts or assignments that deter the students from plagiarizing written outputs. In most cases,
we do this by making the consequences clear to them and equipping them
with paraphrasing and summarizing skills.
C. The suitable scaffold for the given tasks. Wilfong (2015:xiii) said that a teacher should not assign
writing without previous work on the genre, haye students write without exposing them to readings
from the genre, nor have writing be an isolated, individual activity in your classroom."
D. A specified topic, genre, and purpose. We may negotiate the topic with our learners, but to avoid
frustration upon checking their outputs, we need to be clear in the genre and purpose that we want our
students to write about.
e. A clear rubric of evaluation. A well-defined rubric guides the learners in accomplishing their writing
tasks.
f. A reasonable set of deadlines. Just as we need to give them feasible scope, We also have to set
realistic deadlines.

Designing the Lessons for Writing

1. Writing Instruction for Beginners, Teaching L2 writing for beginners requires understanding the
context of the learner.
Pressley, Mohan, Fingeret, Reffitt & Raphael-Bogaert (2007) offer the following characteristics of an
effective elementary literacy classroom.
a. Engaging activities. Writing as a skill can be developed through constant and correct practice, and we
might also agree that learning happens best when more senses are involved.
In teaching spelling:
Schlagal (2007) asserted that spelling is not just a rote memory process. It is best taught along with
vocabulary activities where the teacher carefully chooses words that are preferably context-based and
clustered as to their difficulty levels.
Pressley et al. (2007) revealed that effective writing classes involve motivating activities like posting
learners outputs on the wall, making students react on their classmates' outputs.
Tompkins (2008) described how a teacher encouraged young children to write by hanging images hinged
on a theme like weather or familiar event. Students are encouraged to write something about the image
by inserting in packets words that describe the image.
b. Developmental Instruction- It maybe tempting to teach writing at a early stage using the product
approach because it is casier to check an time eficient.
c. Conducive environment. Experts consider it a serious offense to require learners to write on topics
without proper context.
2. Writing Instruction for Intermediate and Advanced Learners
Writing teachers of intermediate and advanced learners must help student understand the relevance of
writing not only in fluency in the target language but also in learning successful other subjects. Knowing
that writing is both a "şocial act and a "developmental cognitive task,". teachers can raise the students
awareness of the different writing tasks they have to hurdle in an academic setting. Newell, Koukis, &
Boster (2007) asserted the importance of writing as a tool of learning so that teachers have to engage
the learners in the writing tasks commonly required in other disciplines. These include:
a. Note-taking: a skill in extracting and recording relevant information from different types of texts for
future use.
b. Reporting: an ability to recount and write the events that transpired, for instance, in a laboratory
eXperiment., field trip, or group activity.

C. Summarizing: a skill in looking for patterns across a range of events and ideas" and presenting the
information most concisely.
d. Analyzing: an ability to break down ideas, note details, and determine relationships and causality.
e. Journal writing: often a means for self-expression and reflection,
f. Creative writing: "iterary writing, such as short stories and poetry, that provides personal and
imaginative ways of exploring ideas and experiences.
Echoing this idea of contextual and meaningful writing tasks for the learners, Wilfong (2015) narrowed
these tasks into three writing genres that a teacher can use as a guide in organizing writing lessons.
These genres are narrative (recounts factual events or tells a fictional story), informative (involves
factual information), and argumentative (appeals to reason or emotion). Whether the writing instruction
is task or genre-based, we need to motivate our learners to write and help them write effectively. We
could use the following , instructional tips.
a. Reading-Writing Connection. Reading can help provide context and content for writing. We can
encourage our learners to write effectively by providing model texts to read and emulate or reading
materials that they can analyze, react or reflect on.
b. Strategy Instruction. Strategy, as defined by Graham et al. (2007), refers to the "course of action for
accomplishing a specific objective," This requires one to have a clear purpose or goal, the procedural
knowledge in accomplishing the task, and the "will to embark on the designated course of action and
the effort to see it through."
c. Peer or Collaborative Writing. Yagelski (2018) asserted that writing is a "social activity" because
writers often have an audience in mind and other readers who respond to or assess their written
outputs.
d. Utlization of Technology Support. We cannot overemphasize the value of technology in teaching
writing. Our learners now are exposed to multi-modal texts, and they sometimes find the physical act of
traditional writing diffcult or tiring.
3. Scaffolds in Teaching Writing
The following templates and suggested strategies can be useful for an engaging writing classroom
a. Teaching writing mechanics
• Tracing Letters, Words and Sentences
• Letter recognition
b. Teaching Planning in Writing We can help our learners have a pleasant experience.
b.1 Prewriting Activities help learner generate ideas. These include
freewriting, questioning, clustering, and listing.
•Freewriting is writing without restrictions, writing down everything that comes to mind or
feelings about the topic and about the act of writing itself.
•Questioning is similar to brainstorming and is one of the easiest ways
to generate ideas for writing because it is like talking to oneself or finding
answers to your questions.
•Clustering. This means collecting or grouping together ideas related
to our chosen topic.
•Making a list. This technique can help learners in choosing the
topic and narrowing the focus by simply listing all relevant ideas without
worring about the order of importance.