DEVELOPMENTAL

WRITING
TCH3213 THE TEACHING OF WRITING SKILLS
 INTRODUCTION
What are Writing Skills?
Writing skills include all the knowledge and abilities related to expressing ideas through
the written word. The ability to clearly communicate ideas through writing is in high
demand in all situations.

Why are Writing Skills Important?

Writing skills are important because they allow people to get a point across without
being physically present.

What is Developmental Writing?

Developmental writing prepares entry-level students to write effective sentences,
paragraphs, and essays, with the goal of readying them for English Composition and
beyond.
 PATTERNS OF DEVELOPMENT
IN WRITING
When beginning to write, it is helpful to determine the patterns of
development that are most effective for your purpose and
audience. Some general patterns of development are:
• Cause and Effect details why something happens, what causes
it, what are the effects and how it is related to something else.
• Classification and Division groups items into their parts or types.
• Compare and Contrast tells how something is like other things or
how something is different from other things
CONT.
• Definition explains what something is in comparison to other
members of its class, along with any limitations.
• Description details what something looks like and its
characteristics.
• Exemplification provides typical cases or examples of something.
• Narration describes what, when, and where something
happened.
• Persuasion describes an issue and your position or opinion on the
subject.
• Process explains how something happened, how it works or how
it is made.
 SPELLING AND WRITING
• Correct spelling is as important as legible handwriting in
effective written communication.
• Poor spelling interferes with comprehension and
hampers communication.
• Most spelling courses, therefore, take a multi-pronged
approach:
a) Focus on teaching the relationship between the most
common phonemes of English (the smallest sounds) and the
graphemes (the letters or letter combinations) that
correspond with them.
b) Focus on teaching the most common words. One way of
determining the additional words is to refer to the syllabus
requirements for writing and to respond to student requests for
words as and when they arise.

c) Focus on developing visual memory for shapes of words. This is

important because we recognize our own spelling errors usually
by first noticing that the word doesn’t ‘look right’.

c) Focus on developing relevant dictionary skills.

c) Focus on helping pupils devise ways of helping themselves to

remember common but troublesome words.
 POSSIBLE PROCEDURES FOR
TEACHING SPELLING
Here are some steps to help students remember the
spelling of a word:

I. Present the word in a sentence (pupils listen)

II. Write the sentence on the whiteboard.
III. Read the sentence aloud; underline the word as it is
read.
IV. Point to the word and have pupils say it aloud.
V. Show pupils the word written on a flashcard.
VI. Tell pupils to look at the word as a whole. Tell them to
remember the shape.
VII. Tell pupils to close their eyes and imagine or ‘see’ the
word in their mind’s eye.
VIII.Tell them to open their eyes and read the word
again.
IX. Keep the flashcard. Tell pupils to write the word in
their scrapbook/paper.
X. Show them the word again to allow them to check.
XI. Some spelling rules need to be explained and practised. For
example:
a) Words ending in a silent ‘e’, drop the ‘e’ when a suffix which begins with a
vowel is added (-able, -ing)
b) If a one-syllable word ends in a single consonant preceded by a single
vowel, double the consonant before adding –ing, -ed, or –er.
c) In words containing ‘ei’ or ‘ie’, when the sound is a long ‘ee’, use ‘i’ before
‘e’ except after ‘c’.
XII. Reinforce pupils’ memory of the word by getting them to write
the word again at the end of the day or the next day.
XIII. Integrate spelling with writing activities to make learning
spelling a purposeful activity.
 Basic Principles and Practice in
Teaching Spelling
1. Deal with spelling points as they arise.
2. Spelling rules are difficult to remember, so give as many
clear examples as possible.
3. Give brief and frequent practice.
4. Provide opportunities for students to write a word many,
many times until they remember it.
5. Identify misspelled words in a text.
6. Make a spelling scrapbook.
7. Encourage pupils to make a list of new/unfamiliar words
their reading texts.
 Some Activities to Develop
Spelling Competency
• Anagram
1. Introduce new words in scrambled form. Ask students to rearrange
the letters and figure out the word before learning to use it.
2. Give students a long word, such as DICTIONARY and ask them to
find as many smaller words as they can by rearranging the letters.
3. Write the letters on cards and let them wear these letters. Learners
arrange themselves in the correct sequence to form words.
• Missing Letters
1. Each time the word is listed, one additional letter is omitted, leaving
a blank for the students to fill in.

• Puzzles
i. Crossword puzzles are an invaluable means for practising spelling.
ii. Word mazes where students are required to locate words hidden in
the maze in a variety of positions.

• Dealing with Irregularities

oMake students aware of the irregularities in the spelling of English
words. Different combinations of letters may be pronounced in the
same way.
 Communicative Writing
Activities for Beginners
• Teachers should sometimes create situations in which
no one is allowed to talk.

Example 1
Tell pupils that they cannot talk in class. If they want
something from a friend, they must write a note to
him/her.
THE PRINCIPLE OF
GRADUALLY
DIMINISHING
CONTROL
Controlled Guided Free
Writing Writing Writing
 CONTROLLED WRITING
• Writing tasks that provide pupils practice in writing
error-free sentences or paragraphs on a given
topic.

• Controlled writing is characterised by maximal

teacher input and minimal pupil input.
• This technique is for encouraging writing among
beginners who have little knowledge of English
grammar and limited vocabulary.

• Techniques for controlled writing:

a)Using substitution tables
b)Parallel writing
c)Questions and answers
d)Filling in blanks
e)Dictation
 Techniques for Controlled
Writing
a) Using Substitution Tables/Method
• It is completely controlled. Whichever word or
phrase the students choose to use, they will not
make any errors.
• Example: I bet you get married (A) before I get
married (B)
• Substitution: I bet you get married before I do
b) Parallel Writing
• Pupils need only replace
selected words.
• Making one change may
necessitate other changes to
make the text coherent.
• Study a model and then write
on a similar theme using the
sentence structures of the
model text as a guide.
c) Questions and Answers Technique
• Writing activity can range from very controlled to almost free writing. To make it
very controlled, pupils are given notes or a text to read, then they are asked to
write answers to a series of questions.
d) Filling in the Blanks
• Controlled writing is blank filling.
e) Dictation
• It allows pupils to practise spelling and punctuation as well.
• Factors to consider when selecting texts for dictation are:
1. Length. Not be too long because the concentration span of the students
especially the younger ones is very short.
2. Level of difficulty. The vocabulary and style must be appropriate for the
level of the students.
3. Types of text. To make the activity natural, the text should be a sample of
something we normally dictate in real life, e.g. memorandum, business
letters, instructions.
4. The text for dictations should, if possible, have a thematic relationship to
something already read or discussed.
• Example: This is a shouting dictation designed to practice a number of "home" idioms.
Students begin with the shouting part of the activity then proceed to a matching-type.
• Procedures for conducting dictation:

a)Read the whole text once through at normal speed.

b)Read short meaningful chunks at normal speed; pausing at
the end of each chunk for pupils to write. Repeat, if
requested.
c) Allow pupils to look over their writing, obvious mistakes, then
read the text once through to allow pupils to check and
make corrections if necessary.
d)Provide immediate feedback.
 GUIDED WRITING
• There is more learner input in guided writing than
controlled writing.

• In the form of short notes, a list of questions,

arguments for/against an issue.

• Pupils use the ideas to complete their task.

• GW activities:

a)Writing from class-generated guidelines

✔ Tell pupils that they are entering a Father’s Day
essay writing competition. They have to write a 150-
word composition on ‘My Father’.

b)Picture composition with skeleton outline

✔ Display a picture series telling a story. Ask students
to suggest a story line and description based on the
pictures.
c)Writing from short notes
✔ The short notes could be made as pupils participate in
an oral composition activity in a narration about the
preparation for and celebration of ‘Teacher’s Day’.

d)Dicto-comp
✔ combines dictation and composition. It provides
practice in reconstructing a text that has been dictated.
✔ Encourages pupils to use specific sentence patterns
and produce specific types of writing – narrative,
descriptive, argumentative or expository.
THANK YOU!