Principles for Designing Writing Techniques 1. Incorporate practices of "good" writers Good writers:
• focus on a goal or main idea in writing
• perceptively gauge their audience
• spend some time (but not too much!) planning to write
• easily let their first ideas flow onto the paper
• follow a general organizational plan as they write
• solicit and utilize feedback on their writing
• are not wedded to certain surface structures
• revise their work willingly and efficiently
• patiently make as many revisions as needed
2. Balance process and product Make sure that the application of the process principle does not detract from a careful focus on the product as well.
3. Account for cultural/literary backgrounds Make sure that your techniques do not assume that your students know English rhetorical conventions. If there are some apparent contrasts between students' native traditions and those that you are trying to teach, try to help students to understand what it is, exactly, that they are accustomed to and then by degrees perhaps, bring them to the use of acceptable English rhetoric.
4. Connect reading and writing Clearly, students learn to write in part by carefully observing what is already written. That is, they learn by observing, or reading, the written word. By reading and studying a variety of relevant types of text, students can gain important insights both about how they should write and about subject matter that may become the topic of their writing.
5. Provide as much authentic writing as possible Whether writing is real writing or for display, it can still be authentic in that the purposes for writing are clear to the students, the audience is specified overtly, and that there is at least some intent to convey meaning. Writing that is shared with other students in the class is one way to add authenticity-Publishing a class newsletter, writing letters to people outside of class, writing a script for a skit or dramatic presentation, writing a resume, writing advertisements—all these can be seen as authentic writing.
