Instant writing is a technique that allows students to write on a topic without much preparation. It can be used whenever the teacher sees fit. Some example activities for instant writing include: 1) Dictating partial sentences for students to complete about themselves or a given topic. 2) Having students write 2-3 sentences describing a picture or responding to a piece of music. 3) Providing prompts like an acrostic poem form or fill-in-the-blank sentence stems for students to complete short poems or stories.

1. INSTANT WRITING
NOMBRE: Eliana Pinza Tapia

2. Writing on the spot without much in the
way of preparation or warning
CHARACTERISTIC
• It can be used whenever the teacher feels
it is appropriate

3. ACTIVITIES
Dictating
sentences for
completion
SENTENCE
WRITING
The weather Writing
forecast sentences

4. Dictating sentences
for completion
Teachers can dictate part
of a sentence which
students have to complete
about themselves.
For example:
“My favorite restaurant is …”

5. Writing sentences
Teachers can ask students
to write two or three
sentences about a certain
topic
For example:
If Ss are discussing education,
they can write sentences
about positive aspects of
taking exams

6. The weather forecast
At the beginning of the day teachers
can ask Ss to write about themselves
and their day as if they were writing a
weather forecast.
For example:
“What is the weather like now?”

7. Words
What is the
Musical
composer
stories
describing?
USING
MUSIC
How does it
make me Film scores
feel?

8. Words
Teachers can play a piece of
music and have Ss write down
any words that come into
their heads as they listen.
For example:
“Classical music”

9. What is the composer
describing?
Ss are told that in a piece of music
they are about to hear the composer
is trying to describe something
specific. While listening to the music
they have to write down whatever
they hear in the music.
For example:
Vivaldi famously describes the seasons

10. Film scores
Ask Ss to listen to a piece of
music and then create the
opening scenes for a film that
the music suggests to them.
For example:
Film music

11. How does it make
me feel?
Teachers can play Ss
musical excerpts and get
them to write their
reactions as they listen.
For example:
“What colour do you think
the music is?”

12. Musical stories
Ask Ss to write stories on the
basis of music they listen to.
The teacher can dictate the
fist line of a story.
For example:
“He turned and looked at her”

13. Describing
pictures
Suspects
Story
and
tasks
objects
USING
PICTURES
Write the
Portraits
postcard

14. Describing
pictures
Ask Ss to write a
description of
one of the
pictures that you
will show them

15. Suspects and
objects
Give Ss a variety of pictures and ask
them to write about only one of them.
Then Ss give their descriptions to
another student who has to identify
which picture is being described.

16. Write the postcard
Give Ss postcard scenes and then
ask them to write the postcard
which they would expect to write
to an English-speaking friend
from such a location.

17. Portraits
Ask Ss to write a letter to a
portrait, asking the character
questions about his or her life
and explaining why they are
writing to them
theberry.com/2010/11/24/more-star-portraits-by-artist-shahin-20-
photos/celeb-portraits-11/

18. Story tasks
Ss can be given a series of
pictures of random objects and
told to choose four of
them, and write a story which
connects them.
http://sp.depositphotos.com/1637307/stock-illustration-Birthday-objects.html

19. Acrostic
poems/alphabet
poems
Model poems
WRITING Stem/frame
poems
POEMS
Metaphor
generators

20. Acrostic poems /
alphabet poems
An acrostic poem is one
where the first leters of
each line, when read
downwards, form a word.
http://mjoyce.hubpages.com/hub/acrostic-name-poems-for-girls-that-star--
with-c

21. Stem/frame poems
Give Ss sentence or phrase
stems or frames for them to
complete and which, when
completed make something
that is almost a poem.
For example:
I like ……… because ……….
I like ……… because ……….
I like ……… because ……….
But I hate ………. Becaue ……….

22. Metaphor generators
Think of someone you love.
Write that person’s name at the top of the page.
Start the first line with the word YOU.
Write about their person as if they were a kind of food.
End up with something which can often be extremely
meaningful.

23. Model poems
Ask Ss to write about the same
themes of the poem you have given
them or use the same poetic forms.

24. REFERENCES
Harmer, J. (2004). How to teach writing.
England: Pearson Education
Limited.