This document is a thesis submitted by Nguyen Thi Loi to the Vietnam National University in Hanoi in 2009. The thesis investigates the use of pre-writing activities to improve writing skills for 11th form students at Tien Du 3 High School in Bac Ninh province. It aims to identify the causes of difficulties students encounter in writing and examine the effectiveness of various pre-writing activities in helping to develop students' writing abilities. The study employs an action research methodology involving data collection from surveys, tests, and classroom observations.

1. HANOI, 2009
FIELD: ENGLISH METHODOLOGY
CODE: 60 14 10
VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY
Hanoi University of languages and international studies
Department of postgraduate studies
----------
NGUYEN THI LOI
THE USE OF PRE-WRITING ACTIVITIES TO IMPROVE WRITING
SKILLS FOR 11TH
FORM STUDENTS AT TIEN DU 3 HIGH SCHOOL,
BAC NINH – AN ACTION RESEARCH
(Sö DôNG MéT Sè HO¹T §éng tr-íc khi viÕt nh»m ph¸t
triÓn kü n¨ng viÕt cho häc sinh líp 11 t¹i tr-êng thpt
tiªn du sè 3 tØnh b¾c ninh – mét nghiªn cøu hµnh ®éng)
MA MINOR THESIS

2. VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY
HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
Department of Postgraduate Studies
……………..……………..
NGUYEN THI LOI
THE USE OF PRE-WRITING ACTIVITIES TO IMPROVE WRITING SKILLS
FOR 11TH
FORM STUDENTS AT TIEN DU 3 HIGH SCHOOL, BAC NINH – AN
ACTION RESEARCH
(Sö DôNG MéT Sè HO¹T §éng tr-íc khi viÕt nh»m ph¸t triÓn kü
n¨ng viÕt cho häc sinh líp 11 t¹i tr-êng thpt tiªn du sè 3 tØnh
b¾c ninh – mét nghiªn cøu hµnh ®éng)
MA MINOR THESIS
FIELD: ENGLISH METHODOLOGY
CODE: 60 14 10
SUPERVISOR: PHAN THI VAN QUYEN, MA
HANOI, 2009

3. v
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Declaration ………………………………………………………………………… i
Acknowledgements………………………………………………………………… ii
Abstract…………………………………………………………………………….. iii
List of Tables and Charts…………………………………………………………… iv
Table of contents…………………………………………………………………… v
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
1.1. Statement of problems ………………………………………………………. 1
1.2. Aims and research questions of the study …………………………………… 2
1.2.1. Aims of the study …..……………………………………………………… 2
1.2.2. Research questions of the study …………………………………………… 2
1.3. Methods of the study ………………………………………………………… 2
1.4. Significance of the study ….…………………………………………………. 3
1.5. Design of the study…………………………………………………………… 3
CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1. Introduction ………………………………………………………………….. 4
2.2. Theoretical background of writing …………………………………………... 4
2.2.1. Definition of writing ………………………………………………….... 4
2.2.2. Types of writing ......................................................................…............ 5
2.2.3. Why do students need to write? ………………………………………… 5
2.2.4. Factors affecting written communication……………………………….. 7
2.2.5. Writing process ………………………………………………………… 7
2.2.6. The product of writing …………………………………………….…... 8
2.3. Pre-writing stage and pre-writing activities …..………………………... 9
2.3.1. Pre-writing stage ……………………………………………….……… 9
2.3.2. Some common pre-writing activities ………………………………….. 10
2.3.3. Benefits of pre-writing activities ………………………………………. 14

4. vi
2.3.4. A warning about pre-writing activities ………………………………… 15
CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY
3.1. Research method ……………………………….……………………………... 16
3.2. Overview of action research …………………………………………………… 16
3.3. Descriptions of the research …………………………………………………… 16
3.3.1. Description of the participants of the study …………………………….. 16
3.3.1.1. The students …………………………………………………….. 16
3.3.1.2. The teacher ……………………………………………………… 17
3.3.1.3. The rater …………………………………………………………. 17
3.3.1.4. The textbook ……………………………………………………... 17
3.3.2. Planning-identifying the current problems and the causes of the problems 18
3.3.2.1. Pre-test instrument ……………………………………………… 18
3.3.2.2. Questionnaire instrument ………………………………………... 18
3.3.3. Preliminary investigation ……………………………………………….. 19
3.3.4. Hypothesis ………………………………………………………………. 19
3.3.5. Action, developing an action plan and conducting the experiment …….. 19
3.3.6. Observation, collecting data and observing the effects of the action …… 22
3.3.7. Reflection, evaluating the action plan and the evaluated effects of the action 23
3.3.8. Data collection instruments and their procedures ………………………. 23
3.3.9. Summary ………………………………………………………………... 23
CHAPTER FOUR: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION
4.1: Data analysis procedures …….………………………………………………… 25
4.2. The results of the pre-test and post-test ……………………………………….. 26
4.3. The results of the students’ pre- and post-attitudinal survey ………………….. 27
4.3.1: The students’ attitude towards writing …………………………………… 27
4.3.2. The problems that cause the difficulties in students’ writing ……………. 28
4.3.3. The students’ preferences for participating in the pre-writing activities … 30
4.3.4. The students’ assessment of some pre-writing activities ………………… 31
4.3.5. The role of pre-writing activities to the improvement of students’ writing. 34

5. vii
4.4. The students’ comments on the pre-writing activities implemented …………… 35
4.5. Discussion ……………………………………………………………………… 36
4.6. Concluding remarks ……………………………………………………………. 37
CHAPTER FIVE: CONCLUSION
5.1. Suggestions …………………………………………………………………….. 39
5.2. Limitations of the study and recommendations for further research ………….. 40
5.3. Conclusion …………………………………………………………………….. 41
REFERENCES
APPENDICES
Appendix 1: Schedule for writing lessons of the second term ……………………. I
Appendix 2: Questionnaires for students before and after the action plan ……….. III
Appendix 3: Tests …………………………………………………………………. V
Appendix 3.1. Pre-test ……………………………………………….. V
Appendix 3.2. Post-test ……………………………………………… VI
Appendix 4: Results of the Pre- and Post-tests ….………….................................... VII
Appendix 5: Results of the Pre- and Post-study survey questionnaires ………….... VIII
Appendix 6: Sample lesson plan for applying pre-writing activities in class ……… X

6. 1
Chapter 1: Introduction
1. 1.Statement of problems.
It is undeniable that English is the international medium of communication in the fields
of science, technology, culture, education, economy, politic and so on. It is also considered a
means to promote mutual understanding and cooperation between Vietnam and other countries
in the world. Since Vietnam officially joined WTO, the importance of English has been
recognized more and more widely. For its role, English has been not only a compulsory
subject in almost all high schools in Vietnam but one of the three major subjects in the high
school final examination and in the entrance exam to some universities and colleges as well.
Together with the development of English, there are many changes in the curriculum
for high school students. In the past, the contents in the textbook mainly focused on grammar,
reading and speaking. Listening and writing in contexts were almost neglected. Students could
practice listening skill only by listening to their teachers. They rarely had a chance to listen to
foreigners or listen in situations. Their writing skill was even worse. Although they were very
good at doing exercises in structural forms, they could hardly write a topic in class. Only when
the new set of textbooks is used, students have more chances to learn writing skill.
To students in the school where I am teaching, writing seems to be the most difficult
skill. Many of them see writing lessons as times of sighing, pencil – chewing, foot – shuffling
agony. Some students even state that “Oh, I’ve no ideas”, “My palms are sweating, my heart is
beating fast, and my mind is blocked”, “It’s not easy to get it started at all”. Why is it that for
large numbers of high school students, writing seems to be a great problem?
As a teacher, I have thought a lot about this question. There are many things that one
can do to aid in the writing process such as using visual aids, using multi-media, etc. Among
the three stages of a writing lesson: pre-writing, while-writing and post-writing, I think pre-
writing is considered the most important one. It helps students to get starting to write easily. It
is the key in the development of a “good” essay and the “evolution” of good writing skills.
The above reason has encouraged me to investigate into different pre-writing activities.
I would like to do something with the hope of improving writing skill for our students at Tien

7. 2
Du 3 High School. Therefore, the thesis title goes as “The Use of Pre-writing Activities to
Improve Writing Skills for 11th
form students at Tien Du 3 High School, Bac Ninh – An
Action Research”.
Hopefully, the activities introduced in this study will be of some help for the author
and other teachers in writing lessons.
1.2. Aims and research questions of the study.
1.2.1. Aims of the study.
The purposes of this study are to investigate the causes of the difficulties which 11th
form students at Tien Du 3 high school encounter in learning writing and to investigate the
effectiveness of some pre-writing activities employed with a view to improving students’
writing.
To achieve the above purposes, the study has to follow the steps below:
- To investigate the causes of the difficulties in writing lessons from classroom
observation and classroom interaction.
- To devise some pre-writing activities and use them in writing lessons to solve the
problem.
- To examine the effectiveness of these activities to decide whether they are helpful or not.
1.2.2. Research questions of the study.
This study explores the use of different pre-writing activities for 11th
form students in
Tien Du 3 High School. The weaknesses in writing skills of those students have encouraged
the researcher to investigate these activities in the light of the following questions:
1- What are the causes of difficulties in students’ writing?
2- How do the pre-writing activities affect 11th
form students in Tien Du 3 High School
in their writing?
1.3. Methods of the study.
The study was carried out using action research method. The data were collected from
survey questionnaires, class observation and interviews with students. Questionnaires are
designed as a means to make the researcher’s evaluation more objective. The questionnaires
are given to eleventh form students of Tien Du 3 High School to find out their evaluation on

8. 3
the pre-writing activities implemented as well as their comments and suggestions for these
activities.
1.4. Significance of the study.
The study highlights the importance of pre-writing stage in the process of a writing lesson.
It may also provide some useful ideas for teachers and help them implement the activities in
the pre-writing stage more effectively.
Finally yet importantly, the author of the study hopes that the suggested pre-writing activities
can help students improve their writing skill in class.
1.5. Design of the study.
The study consists of five chapters: Chapter 1: Introduction; Chapter 2: Literature
Review; Chapter 3: Methodology; Chater 4: Data Analysis; Chapter 5: Suggestion and
conclusion.
Chapter 1, the introduction, presents the background to the study and statement of the
problem, the aims, significance and design of the study. It also expresses the author’s reasons
for choosing the method to fulfill the study.
Chapter two, Literature Review, presents the main concepts relevant to the research
topic such as different points of views about writing, definition of pre-writing, the importance
of the pre-writing stage in a writing lesson, etc.
Chapter three presents the methodology used in the study. The researcher attempts to
improve students’ writing practice in classroom. Therefore, the methodology employed in this
study is action research.
Chapter 4 provides detailed results of the survey questionnaires and class observation.
The students’ comments are also given in this chapter. The comprehensive analysis on the data
collected is supplied in details in this part.
The last chapter of this study, chapter 5, offers some major findings of using pre-
writing activities in class. It also gives a “Conclusion” to the study, which emphasizes the key
issues in the study, points out the limitations and provides some suggestions for the further
study.

9. 4
Chapter 2: Literature review
2.1. Introduction.
To provide a theoretical background to the study, this chapter is devoted to the review
of concepts most relevant to the thesis’s topic. These are the theoretical background of writing,
the stages of a writing lesson, and the factors affecting teaching and learning writing.
2.2. Theoretical background of writing.
It is important to identify the skills involved in written communication to devise
effective activities to teach writing. To identify the skills we need to know what writing
actually involves. Hence the following parts review the different definitions of writing, the
processes involved in writing and the factors that affect written communication.
2.2.1. Definition of writing.
What writing is and how it is developed has been a subject of discussion and debate for
centuries, from the time of Aristotle, Cicero, etc. to present. Through there are different
viewpoints, it is commonly agreed that writing is far from being a simple matter of
transcribing language into written symbols: it is a thinking process in its own right. It demands
conscious intellectual effort, which usually has to be sustained over a considerable period of
time. Given below are some of the views of various writers on the definition of writing.
In “The world’s writing systems”, Daniels (1996, p3) defines writing as “A system of
more or less permanent marks used to represent an utterance in such a way that it can be
recovered more or less exactly without the intervention of the utterer”.
According to Donn Byrne, “Writing involves the encoding of a message of some kind:
that is, we translate our thoughts into language”. (1979:1).
It is obvious that when we write, we use graphic symbols: that is, letters or
combinations of letters which relate to the sounds we make when we speak. On one level,
writing can be said to be the act of forming these symbols: making marks on a flat surface of
some kind. But writing is clearly much more than the production of sounds. The symbols have
to be arranged, according to certain conventions, to form words, and words have to be
arranged to form sentences. As a rule, however, we do not write just one sentence or even a

10. 5
number of unrelated sentences. We produce a sequence of sentences arranged in a particular
order and linked together in certain ways.
The page on http://web.mit.edu/writing/Writing_Process/writingprocess.html defines
writing as followed: “Writing is a process that involves at least four distinct steps: prewriting,
drafting, revising, and editing. It is known as a recursive process. While you are revising, you
might have to return to the prewriting step to develop and expand your ideas”.
The above quotation closely relates to the steps in a writing lesson. That is, pre-writing, while-
writing and post-writing. It is the teacher’s duty to make the writing lessons more interesting
and useful for students.
2.2.2. Types of writing.
There are different opinions about the types of writing. Davies and Widdowson (1974),
Rivers and Temperley (1978), and Pincas (1982) elaborated writing into six categories: (1)
Personal writing is writing for oneself (diaries, journals, shopping lists, reminders for oneself,
packing lists, addresses, recipes); (2) Study writing is also for oneself (making notes while
reading, taking notes from lecturers, making a card index, summaries, synopses, reviews,
reports of experiments/ workshops/ visits, essays, bibliographies; (3) Public writing is as a
member of the general public to organizations or institutions (letters of inquiry/ complaint/
request, form-filling, applications for memberships); (4) Creative writing can include poems,
stories, rhymes, drama, songs, autobiography; (5) Social writing is a category which includes
letters, invitations, notes of condolence/ of thanks/ of congratulations, cablegrams, telephone
messages, instructions to friend/ family; (6) Institutional writing relates to professional roles
(agendas, minutes, memoranda, reports, reviews, contracts, business letters, public notices,
advertisements, posters, instructions, speeches, applications, curriculum vitae, specifications
and note-making.
2.2.3. Why do students need to write?
Writing is one skill that students need to learn in class. In the past, writing skill was
almost neglected in language teaching in Vietnam. Students could hardly be able to write a
letter or an essay in English successfully. Only from some years back to now, writing has been
paid much attention to.

11. 6
Writing skill is not an easy one. Writing in students’ mother tongue is difficult. And
writing in a foreign language is even much more difficult. For many high school students,
perhaps even the majority of them, writing is the skill in which they are least proficient, even
after considerable practice.
Referring to the importance of writing, John M. Lannon (1989) points out “Writing is
never done merely to demonstrate mechanical correctness; instead, the aim of any writing is to
advance a writer’s definite purpose and to serve a reader’s definite needs”. He also states the
importance of writing in relation with reading, that is “making clear the link between reading
and writing, and promoting active reading”.
It is obvious that besides helping students to improve the composing skills essential in
planning, drafting, and revising, writing skill enables students to evaluate their own writing for
its rhetorical effectiveness: worthwhile content, sensible organization, and readable style.
Moreover, it offers students practice in discovering, shaping, and expressing their meanings
for a variety of goals.
Compared with speech, effective writing requires a number of things: a high degree of
organization of ideas and information; a high degree of accuracy so that there is no ambiguity
of meaning; the use of complex grammatical devices for focus and emphasis; and a careful
choice of vocabulary, grammatical patterns, and sentence structures to create a style which is
appropriate to the subject matter and the eventual readers.
We can see that a good deal of writing in the English classroom in high schools is
undertaken as an aid to learning, for example, to consolidate the learning of new structures or
vocabulary or to help students remember new items of language. Writing allows students to
see how they are progressing and to get feedback from the teacher, and it allows students to
monitor and diagnose problems. Donn Byrne (1979) points out “Written work serves to
provide the learners with some tangible evidence that they are making progress in the
language. It is not likely to be a true index of their attainment, but once again it satisfies a
psychological need” and “Writing is often needed for formal and informal testing”.
Generally speaking, on pedagogical grounds alone, writing is a skill worth developing
in a foreign language lesson. In order to help students master this skill, the teachers have to

12. 7
develop interesting and effective teaching methods into the writing lessons. And students
should spend more time on learning this skill both at home and in class.
2.2.4. Factors affecting written communication.
A number of factors have to be kept in mind to communicate effectively through
writing. The message we want to convey has less chances of being misunderstood if we have
some background information about the intended reader, and his previous knowledge of
whatever is related to our message. Some of the factors which play an important part in our
selection of what to convey, how to convey and how much to convey are as follows:
* The relationship between the writer and the reader whether it is at a formal or intimate
level.
* The purpose of the activity - whether the message is conveyed for giving information,
seeking permission, soliciting advice and so on.
* The previous knowledge of the reader – whether the message is new to him, partly known
or known from a different angle.
* The type of message - whether it is simple, complex, involves technical expressions or not.
* Intended response - whether the writer wants to please the reader, persuade him, threaten
him or enrage him.
The writer should keep all these factors in mind if he wants the reader to understand his
message properly and react in the way he wants him/her to.
Having analyzed the nature of writing, the problems involved in communicating
through writing, and the factors that affect written communication, it is necessary to undertake
a study on how to teach writing effectively.
2.2.5. Writing process.
There has been a considerable change and development in the teaching – learning
process over the years. Along with it the importance given to the various skills of language
has also been changing. The changes in the importance given to writing have affected the
types of topics used and the teaching and testing of writing in general.
The writing process in class usually consists of the following stages: Pre-writing,
while-writing and post-writing.

13. 8
In other situations, there are different opinions about the writing process. However, the
main steps in the writing process are as followed:
- pre-writing.
- write a rough draft (your first try or second....)
- revise (look for ways to improve your paper).
- edit (check for spelling and grammatical errors).
- publish
It is obvious that the process of writing is important to any writers. That’s why Ron
White (1980) highlights its importance in the “Process writing”: “What is important for us as
teachers of writing is to engage our students in that creative process; to excite them about how
their texts are coming into being; to give them insights into how they operate as they create
work”
2.2.6. The product of writing.
There are many things to be considered in the product of writing. However, in this part, I
would like to mention the list of the “skills” that students need to get to have the best final
products. They are:
- Getting the grammar right.
- Having a range of vocabulary.
- Punctuating meaningfully.
Focusing
Structuring
Generating
ideas Evaluating
Re-viewing
Drafting

14. 9
- Using the conventions of layout correctly, e.g. in letters.
- Spelling accurately.
- Using a range of sentence structures.
- Linking ideas and information across sentences to develop a topic.
- Developing and organizing the content clearly and convincingly.
2.3. Pre-writing stage and pre-writing activities
Prewriting is one of the most important stages of the writing process, in addition to
revision. Unfortunately, most beginning (and some advanced) writers do not spend enough
time on these activities, so writing is more difficult than it needs to be.
In “The practice of writing”, Robert Scholes and Nancey R Comley (1989) highlight
the importance of prewriting: “Your most productive way of beginning almost any writing
task will be to collect your thoughts on paper without the pressure of structuring your
expression into its final form”.
2.3.1. Pre-writing stage.
Among the four main stages of the writing process: pre-writing, drafting, revising and
editing, pre-writing, the first stage, fully reveals its importance in writing. What is pre-
writing? When and why do we need to do pre-writing?
Webster’s Dictionary defines pre-writing as, “The formulation and organization of
ideas preparatory to writing”.
(http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/prewritings).
Writer’s block

15. 10
“Prewriting is anything you do before you write a draft of your document. It includes
thinking, taking notes, talking to others, brainstorming, outlining, and gathering information
(e.g., interviewing people, researching in the library, assessing data)”.
(http://web.mit.edu/writing/Resources/Writers/process.html).
“Prewriting is the first stage of the writing process, and includes all the things you do
before you are ready to write out the first version of your text”.
(http://www.openenglish.com/learn-english/2008/the-writing-process-prewriting/).
To sum up, pre-writing refers to any activity in the classroom that encourages the
generation of ideas. It helps students stimulate thoughts for getting started. In fact, it moves
students away from having to face a blank page to generating tentative ideas and gathering
information for writing.
2.3.2. Some common pre-writing activities.
Prewriting is nothing more than getting ready to write. No person would leave on
vacation without plans as to where to go. No person would start to build a house without plans
as to what it will look like. No person would start to cook a meal without an idea of what
would be served. Similarly, no person should attempt to write without a plan for what is to be
written.
Hereunder are some common pre-writing activities used at high-school:
* Brainstorming.
Brainstorming is a widely used and effective way of getting ideas flowing. The writer
creates a “storm” of ideas, not passing judgment on any of them or censoring any idea that
comes to mind. These ideas may be ideas for actual content, or ideas for organizing the
content. In general, brainstorming involves thinking quickly and without inhibition so as to
produce as many ideas as possible in a given area or on a given topic or problem.
Brainstorming can be carried out individually or among a group of people. In classes,
brainstorming is most frequently practiced as group activity. Small groups can brainstorm
ideas, with one person (or the instructor) recording ideas, or the class as a whole can
brainstorm. The group may then select and order ideas from this brainstorming list to plan
individually or collaboratively written texts.

16. 11
Brainstorming can be used to:
- Choose a topic.
- Identify a reason or purpose for writing.
- Find an appropriate form in which to write.
- Develop a topic.
- Work out a plot.
- Develop the organization of ideas.
* Listing and grouping.
This method requires students to list all words or phrases related to topic. Students do
not stop until they have written a large quantity and completely run out of ideas. They will not
be in a hurry to cross out the seemingly unimportant, repetitive, or even unrelated ones as soon
as they put them on the paper. For example, students can first write such a topic as “Money” at
the top of their paper, and then, either in pairs or in small groups, list words or phrases as
follows:
(1) traveling (2) savings (3) bribery (4) studying abroad (5) prostitution (6) beautiful clothes
(7)stealing (8) loan (9)payment
After listing all the items they can think of, students can begin to check the list, and
together to decide to cross out the ones which do not fit, and the ones which are repetitive.
After that, students can easily put the list into three subgroups such as:
(1) Enjoyment
(2) Banking & Finance
(3) Evil things
List making can be a boon when students know so much about a topic he/she feels
overwhelmed. With a list, students can narrow a broad range of possibilities. Commonly, lists
have no apparent order. When students start placing ideas in order, he/she is beginning a
scratch outline.
* Rapid free writing.
Rapid free writing, just like warming up before a game, flexes students’ writing
muscles (Raimes, 1996). This pre-writing technique simply requires students to write as much

17. 12
as possible about a topic. In this activity, individual students can generate as many ideas as
possible without worrying about spelling, punctuation, grammar, logic, organization or
accuracy, in order to develop fluency in writing. Of course, these above-mentioned elements
of writing are important, but students’ concern about them can sometimes inhibit the free flow
of their ideas, so students are better leaving those things for later consideration. In free writing,
for example, students should first write the essay topic at the top of the paper to remind
themselves what the writing is about, and then begin to free-write on the topic within a given
period of time without stopping so that they can let one idea spark another idea in free
association. What they write rapidly on the paper may be a word, a phrase or a sentence. In
this way, they will soon be surprised to find they have much to say instead of little.
*Clustering.
Start with a central idea and relate words, phrases, or ideas to it. This activity is used to
find a direction for thoughts.
Example: The topic is writing about somebody’s daily life.
Students can do the clustering activities as followed
Daily life
Before work
Work
Meals
- Walk before work.
- Play tennis after
work
Exercise
- Get up
- Shower
- Dress
- Have
- Breakfast
- Bus to
work
- Breakfast
- Snack.
- Lunch
- Dinner
- Co-workers.
- Meetings
- Write report
- Phone

18. 13
Clustering works like brainstorming: ideas should be jotted down quickly, without
critique. The writer begins with a single word closely associated with the topic that he/she
places at the center of the page. Then he/she jots additional words and phrases around it on the
page. Having lots of white space around short phrases and single words makes it easier for the
writer to make links between the ideas he/she generated, adding circles to group ideas and
lines to connect ideas in various ways. This activity may be much more pleasurable if
undertaken with a handful of felt-tip markers in various colors.
* Making wh-questions: Instead of staring at a blank sheet, students can quickly get
started by asking themselves a series of who, why, what, where, when and how questions
about a topic and providing possible answers. This process is particularly productive because
it stimulates active thinking. It reveals a wealth of details for enriching the paragraph. The wh-
questions can help students see what they want to say and what they don’t want to say. For
example, students can ask themselves the following Wh-questions:
(1) “What” questions: What’s the problem? What’s my opinion? What’s the reason?
(2) “Who” questions: Who was involved? Who did it? Who was affected?
(3) “Why” questions: Why did it happen? Why did I do it?
(4) “When” questions: When did it happen? When did I realize this?
(5) “How” questions: How did it happen? How can I change the situation?, etc.
* Simple outlining.
Simple outlining is an effective way to help students to write more quickly. If students
want to have a good idea in their mind of how they will begin and what major points they plan
to discuss, they need to write a simple outline to check their ideas, to make sure that their
points are well organized, and to use as a guideline to refer to as they write. Once they have
worked out a good outline for a paragraph or a short essay, they have completed 50 percent of
the work. With an outline, the actual writing becomes easier because students don’t have to
worry about what they are going to say. Hence, they can write more quickly. Here is a sample
outline:
Topic: Money.

19. 14
Students can develop ideas basing on the three main points: Enjoyment, Banking and
Finance, Evil things.
A. Enjoyment: (1) Traveling around the world; (2) Buying beautiful clothes; (3)
Studying abroad.
B. Banking & Finance: (1) Payment; (2) Loan; (3) Savings.
C. Evil things: (1) Bribery; (2) Stealing; (3) Prostitution.
* Percolating: Thinking about your topic. Deeply examining, with the mind, what
needs to be said.
* Reading/Researching: Find information about the subject.
* Discussing: Talk to other people, with varying levels of knowledge on the topic,
about the piece.
* In addition, ideas for writing can be generated from multimedia sources (printed
materials, videos, films) as well as from direct interviews, talks, surveys and questionnaires.
Students will be more motivated to write when given a variety of means for gathering
information during pre-writing.
2.3.3. Benefits of pre-writing activities.
In general, the main benefits of pre-writing activities are:
Firstly, they can bring a lot of fun. At this point, anything is possible. A student may have
many ideas and the ideas can be freewheeling or even idiotic. It does not matter. He/she just
keeps brainstorming, playing with ideas, collecting resources and notes, doing all the other
activities needed to finish this stage of the writing process. At this point, the student’s writing
may go in many directions. However, he/she needs to explore the ideas until he/she hit upon
(find out) the ones that feel right.
Secondly, a student can easily evaluate new ideas that come flooding into his/her mind.
Thirdly, pre-writing activities allow the student to write the first draft more easily because
he/she knows what he/she wants to write at each writing session.
Next, pre-writing activities increase student’s self- confidence as a writer. He/she will be able
to determine if the ideas have merit, and if he/she will be able to finish the topic and actually
write that topic.

20. 15
Finally yet importantly, by the end of the pre-writing process, the student will have a full
outline of the topic. With that outline, student will be able to see the whole project at a glance.
When spreading the outline across the desk and examine the creation, the student will be able
to detect:
 Inadequate organization of the ideas.
 Gaps in ideas and content.
 Whether the student has one paragraph or more.
 Whether the writing needs cutting down in size.
In brief, the main benefits in carrying out pre-writing activities are: (1) They help
students stimulate thoughts for getting started and making writing easier; (2) They help
students remove the mental block and distraction that prevent ideas coming out; (3) They help
students write in a more motivating and stimulating way instead of pondering over an essay
topic alone; (4) They help create a cooperative and enjoyable atmosphere in the writing class.
2.3.4. A warning about pre-writing activities.
It is undeniable that pre-writing activities help students a lot when they start to write.
However, besides the above benefits, there is also a warning when implementing these
activities in class. That is, both the teacher and students may become so fascinated by this
stage that they don’t actually move past it to create the first draft, and then on to revision. In
other words, like research, writers have a tendency to spend too much time planning and never
get to implementation (drafting). Consequently, teachers may run out of time in writing
lessons if they do not prepare carefully.

21. 16
Chapter 3: Methodology.
3.1. Research method.
An action research was carried out in order to answer the two research questions of this
study:
1- What are the causes of difficulties in students’ writing?
2- How do the pre-writing activities affect 11th
form students in Tien Du 3 High School
in their writing?
In this action research, data were collected from two main data collection instruments:
survey questionnaires and tests.
3.2. Overview of action research.
Action research has been defined in a number of different ways. Burns (1994) defines
action research as “the application of fact finding to practical problem solving in a social
situation with a view to improving the quality of action within it, involving the collaboration
and co-operation of researchers, practitioners and laymen”. In the first chapter of the book
“Action research for Language Teachers, Wallace (1998) states that Action research is a
process which collects data on your everyday practice and analyzes it in order to make
decision about what your future practice should be”.
Usually, there are five main phases of action research: problem identification, plan of
action, data collection, analysis of data and plan for future action. Nunan (1992) also agrees
with the five steps above but he divides the action research process into smaller steps:
Initiation, preliminary investigation, hypothesis, intervention, evaluation and dissemination.
In this action research, Nunan’s six steps were adopted because his ideas cover all
other researchers’ opinions. The study was divided into 2 periods and included 8 final weeks
of the second semester. The first period took place in 2 weeks (week 1 and week 2) and the
second period took place in 6 weeks (from week 3 to week 8).
3.3. Descriptions of the research.
3.3.1. Description of the participants of the study.
3.3.1.1. The students.

22. 17
The research is carried out in class 11 A3 of Tien Du 3 High School. The class size is
46. There are 21 males and 25 females. Their ages are from 17 to 18. They are from different
communes of Tien Du district, Bac Ninh Province. They have learnt English (E) 6, E7, E8, E9
and E10. They did not acquire the same level of English. Especially in English writing tests,
they often got low marks. Some students even do not know how to get started to write. This
reason encouraged the researcher to choose them as the objectives of the study.
3.3.1.2. The teacher.
Also taking part in the study of this action research was the teacher of class 11A3- Tien
Du 3 High School. It is obvious that the teacher plays a very important part in students’
writing. Oxford (1990) has shown that the roles of the teachers are traditionally viewed as an
authority figure, instructor, director, manager, leader, evaluator, controller, and even the
doctor who must cure the ignorance of the students.
Oxford (1990) also emphasizes the importance roles of the teacher as: “diagnostician”,
as “language learner”, as “learner trainer” and also a “coordinator” and a “coach”. The status
is no longer based on hierarchical authority, but on the quality and importance of his/her
relationship with learners. When the learners take more responsibility, more learning occurs,
and both teacher and learners feel more successful.
3.3.1.3. The rater.
In order to make the study more objective, the researcher has asked a teacher of Tien
Du 3 High School to code and rate the pre- and post-tests. If the marks given by the rater are
the same as the marks given by the teacher of class 11A3, the marks will be accepted. If there
are differences in marks between them, they will have to discuss and agree on which marks to
be accepted.
3.3.1.4. Textbook.
The textbook “English 11” (Tiếng Anh 11) designed by the Ministry of Education was
used. This new set of textbook was applied first in the school year 2007-2008 under the
Ministry of Education and Training’s decision. The book was complied following the theme
based and task-based approaches. It contains 16 units within 103 periods (34 weeks) in two
terms. There are 3 periods of English per week. Each teaching unit consists of five 45-minute

23. 18
periods for normal class: Reading, speaking, listening, writing and language focus. Like other
skills, writing skill covers one period. Students often find it difficult to write a topic in class
and they often got low marks for this skill.
3.3.2. Planning-identifying the current problems and the causes of the problems (week
1, 2).
During the teaching process, the researcher discovered that her students seemed to be
weak at writing skills. They did not know how to get started in writing essay topics or took a
lot of time for the writing. To find out the problems that students had in learning writing
lessons and writing tests, the researcher raised the research question: “What are the causes of
difficulties in students’ writing?” To answer this question, Pre-test and Questionnaire
instruments were used to identify the problem.
3.3.2.1 Pre-test instrument.
A writing test was used to collect data about the students’ language proficiency. The
content of the test was designed basing on the topic given in the textbook (See appendix 3.1).
The pre-test was done without any implementation of the pre-writing activities.
3.3.2.2. Questionnaire instrument.
After the pre-test was finished, the pre-study questionnaire (see Appendix 2) was sent
to the students to get their information on the difficulties in writing, their preference for
implementing the pre-writing activities and their assessment of the pre-writing activities
implemented.
The aims of the questions in the survey questionnaire are as followed:
Question 1 aims at finding out the students’ attitude toward writing skill.
Question 2 aims at finding out the number of students who have troubles thinking about what
to write.
Question 3 helps the researcher know the factors that cause the difficulties in students’
writing.
Question 4 aims at finding out how students would like to participate in pre-writing activities.
Question 5 aims at finding out the students’ assessment on some of the pre-writing activities
given in textbook and applied by the teacher.

24. 19
Question 6 is asked for the purpose of finding out the role of the pre-writing activities to the
improvement of students’ writing.
To ensure that the informants understood the questionnaires, the teacher explained all
the questions carefully and guided students when necessary.
3.3.3. Preliminary investigation. (Week 3,4).
To confirm the problem stated in phase 1, the researcher conducted the lessons of unit
11, 12 in usual way, without any treatments. The researcher observed the class and
interviewed students to find out why they got stuck in their writing. The interview questions
are as follows:
What do you think about the pre-writing activities available in your textbook?
Which pre-writing activities do you like most?
How would you like to participate in the pre-writing activities? (In pairs, in groups,
individually)
The researcher took notes of their answers and marked their preference for how they
would like the pre-writing activities to be implemented in class, which activities they liked to
be implemented in the pre-writing stage, etc.
3.3.4. Hypothesis.
After the data from the pre-tests and pre-study survey questionnaires had been
collected, the main reasons for the low marks and the difficulties in writing lessons were
hypothesized as followed:
- The pre-writing activities in the textbook are not sufficient enough.
- The students’ language competence and proficiency is low.
3.3.5. Action, developing an action plan and conducting the experiment. (Week 5, 6, 7,
8)
Based on the data collected and the reasons found out in the first phase, the researcher
added some pre-writing activities to the writing lessons to solve the problem. The activities
were carried out in the writing lessons of unit 13, 14, 15 in class 11A3, Tien Du 3 High School
(Second semester).At first, the researcher reviewed the pre-writing activities provided in the
textbook and considered other activities which help make the writing easier. The activities

25. 20
most students preferred in the pre-writing stage were brainstorming, drawing, asking and
answering questions, listing, clustering, drawing (describing pictures) and rapid free-writing.
Therefore, the researcher implemented these activities in unit 13, 14, 15 and 16 (week 5, 6, 7,
8) depending on the content of each lesson.
In unit 13 (week 5 of the action research), the researcher applied the pre-writing
activity “asking and answering questions”. First, students were asked to work in pairs to
brainstorm for the name of the collections they saw in the pictures. Next, the teacher called the
representatives of some pairs to write the answers on the board after about 5 minutes. In
addition, the researcher gave some wh-questions and asked students to work in groups to
rearrange them into logical order. After that, the groups were required to write their answers
on a piece of paper and then exchanged their pieces of paper. They would discuss and
supplement the ideas that their group or the other group did not have. After that, the teacher
collected the students’ answers to see if students had enough ideas to write or not. The teacher
then suggested a list of ideas and asked students to select which ideas to answer the questions.
In general, most students could do these tasks well. They remembered the order of the ideas
that should be written in their papers in the while-writing stage.
In the writing section of unit 14, the teacher designed 2 tasks in the pre-writing stage
for students to do before asking them to write on the paper. The requirement of this unit is to
write a passage about “the class’s camping holiday”. In task 1, the teacher asked students to
brainstorm for all the activities they often did when going camping. This activity was held in
the whole class with the teacher directing. And the teacher gave suggestions when necessary.
This activity was carried out in 5 minutes to help students recall of their existing knowledge
and prepare the mood for the writing lesson. In task 2 (page 158 in the textbook), students had
to match the activities listed in the textbook with the correct pictures. They did this task
individually. After the teacher had given the answers for the matching task, students had
enough information for the writing such as the time the bus left school, when they got to the
camping site, when they put up the umbrella tent, what activities they did while they were
there (watching wildlife in the forest, cooking food over an open fire, swimming in the lake,
playing games, fishing, etc), what time they left the campsite.

26. 21
In unit 15, the writing task was writing a biography. Before doing task 1 in the
textbook, the teacher asked students to look at the picture of Neil Armstrong. They would then
work in pairs and talk about what they knew about this person for 5 minutes. Then, one
student put the question and the other answered. Students might ask and answer about his date
of birth, place of birth, his career and his famous quote, etc. The teacher noted down the
information and did not correct students’ information. After the activity “asking and
answering questions”, the teacher asked students to do task 1 in the textbook. Students had to
base on the information given and selected the headings in the box (page 174-English 11) to
fill in the blanks. When students had finished task 1, the teacher asked them to write a
biography of Neil Armstrong basing on the information given in task 1 in the while-writing
stage. Because all the suggested information in the textbook was put in the time order, so
students could complete task 2 with not many difficulties. For the writing task, the teacher
encouraged those students to write more information rather in the textbook into the writing.
In the last writing lesson, unit 16, students had to write a topic which was rather
unfamiliar and difficult for them. The topic is “basing on the notes made by a visitor to the
Ponaga Cham Towers in Nha Trang (page 184-English 11), write a report on the visit”. The
teacher used two pre-writing activities: asking and answering questions and outlining in the
pre-writing stage. Firstly, the teacher asked the students whether any of them had seen the
Ponaga Cham Towers with their own eyes. If students said “yes”, students recalled the
information they remembered about this place. If students said “no”, the teacher showed a
picture of Ponaga Cham Towers and asked students to describe it. The teacher asked Wh-
questions to prompt when necessary (How many towers are there? Where is it located? When
was it built? etc). Next, the teacher showed the picture of the Ponaga Cham Towers and the
notes written by a visitor (page 184). The teacher explained the words or phrases which
students did not know. Then students had to write an outline based on the notes given. This
task was done individually for about 7 minutes. The teacher went around and gave suggestions
for those who had difficulties fulfilling the task. Next, the teacher collected the outlines, chose
the best written one and showed to the other students to comment. After the above pre-writing
activities, students could confidently write the report in the while-writing stage.

27. 22
Above were the main pre-writing activities that I implemented in the pre-writing stage
of unit 13, 14, 15 and 16 (English 11). Throughout the writing lessons, I observed and made
notes as to see how the students were working and their reactions to the pre-writing activities.
These observations were based on several guidelines: “What problems are the students
encountering as they work with these pre-writing activities? Are they still having problems
with the content of the writing? Are there problems with individual, pair and group works?
These observations and notes were useful in making sense of any fluctuations I found in the
end-of-study surveys. I was able to discern the source of problems that affected students’
writing.
At the end of each writing lesson, I had students share their comments on the pre-
writing activities implemented by the teacher. I noted down all these comments. Students were
also encouraged to send their written, individual comments to me, responding to the following
questions: What problems did you encounter while you were doing your pre-writing activities?
Did you learn from the other students when working in pairs or in groups? Do the pre-writing
activities implemented make it easier for you to write?
Finally, to see whether the pre-writing activities had any positive impact on students’
attitudes towards writing, I surveyed the students by asking the same questions that I had
asked in the beginning survey.
3.3.6. Observation, collecting data and observing the effects of the action.
While the action plan was implemented, the researcher collected the data and practiced
the pre-writing activities in the classroom. Data of the questionnaires collected in week 1, 2 of
the action research was used to see which pre-writing activities were preferred most by
students. And then, the researcher implemented those activities and some other ones for
students to see if there were any changes in their results. The data was gathered after 8 weeks
of implementing the action plan; the students did a writing post-test to collect data on how the
pre-writing activities implemented affect the quality of their writing. Students were also asked
to answer the survey questionnaires distributed in the first week again. The purpose of this
action was to see if the students’ writing skill improved or not. The analysis of these collected
data was described in details in chapter 4.
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28. 23
3.3.7. Reflection, evaluating the action plan and the evaluated effects of the action.
The action research was evaluated basing on the collected results from the post-test
and the post-study attitudinal survey questionnaire. The researcher compared the results of the
post-test and the post-study attitudinal survey questionnaire with the pre-test and the pre-study
survey questionnaire. From the findings of the action research and the students’ comments on
the activities implemented, the researcher drew out the conclusion whether those activities
helped improving students’ writing ability or not. Some recommendations were also given
after the study.
3.3.8. Data collection instruments and their procedures.
The pre-test was done in March 2009 and the post-test was done in May, 2009. The
procedures of collecting data were carried out as follows:
Firstly, the pre-test was used for students in class 11A3, Tien Du 3 High School
without any implementation of the pre-writing activities outside textbook to clarify the first
step of the action research: Planning-identifying the current problems. The teacher based on
the result of the pre-test to identify whether the lack of pre-writing activities was the cause of
the students’ writing difficulty. This was also done to see if students’ writing result was better
after some pre-writing activities had been implemented. The topic of the pre-test was taken
from Unit 13 (See appendix 1).
Secondly, to answer the second research question: “How do the pre-writing activities
affect 11th
form students in Tien Du 3 High School in their writing?, the researcher conducted
a post-test and a post-study attitudinal survey questionnaire after the pre-writing activities had
been implemented in class. The results then were compared with the results of the first stage to
see how much changes students made.
3.3.9. Summary.
In this part the research method and its different data collection instruments were
introduced. The reasons for the method selection were also discussed. The data procedures, the
implementation of the action plan were conducted in a strict order. After the data from the pre-
test and pre-study attitudinal survey questionnaire were collected, the causes of the students’
difficulties in writing were sought. Then one action plan of implementing some useful pre-
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29. 24
writing activities was developed during the last four units of the second term. Basing on the
analysis of the results from the action plan implementation, the data collected from tests, the
action research was evaluated.

30. 25
Chapter 4: Data analysis and discussion.
In this chapter, the researcher mainly focuses on the data analysis and some
discussions of the major findings of the study. Data and comments collected during the
progress of doing the research will also be presented in this part.
4.1. Data analysis procedure.
Data was analyzed by comparing students' responses on pre and post attitude surveys.
Students were asked to respond to the same 6 questions at the beginning and at the end of the
study.
Data was also analyzed by comparing the results of the pre- and post-writing tests to
determine if there was a difference in quality which would suggest that students were able to
write in class better as a result of the pre-writing activities employed.
Before evaluating the writing tests, each composition was photocopied and coded to
reduce bias. (Several students had a preference for using distinctively colored ink for writing
assignments.) In order to reduce bias, a person not involved in the study who was also
unfamiliar with the students randomly affixed numbered labels to the writing tests and mixed
the pre and post-tests. The labels were placed over students' names and were reinforced so that
the names would not show through. A list of names and corresponding numbers was prepared
and placed in an envelope; it was not viewed by the researcher until after the writing tests
were read and rated.
The researcher used different criteria to rate the writing tests. In general, there are five
main criteria to assess the students’ writing. The first criterion is developing and organizing
the contents of the topic clearly and convincingly. The second one is getting the grammar
right. The third one is using a range of vocabulary and sentence structures. The next criterion
is using the conventions of layout correctly, e.g. in writing a letter or writing a report. The
final criterion is accuracy in spelling and meaningful punctuation.
As an additional method of reducing bias in rating students' compositions, the initial
ratings were recorded, then the compositions were remixed. A person who was not involved in
the study and was also unfamiliar with the students (in this study it was the same person who
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