Writing is a complex skill that requires the integration of cognitive, memory, linguistic, motor, and affective systems. It is difficult to teach because students must learn how to juggle all of these systems simultaneously. The writing process includes pre-writing, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing. Effective writing instruction models good writing, demonstrates writing strategies, provides practice and feedback, and scaffolds the writing process from simple to more complex tasks. Teaching writing helps students learn how to clearly present and defend their ideas.

1. Teaching writingTeaching writing

2. Outline
• Introduction
• What is writing?
• Types of writing
• Writing as a process
• The importance of writing
• Writing subskills
• The difficulty of writing
• Teaching writing
• Conclusion

3. Sayings about writing

4. “Talent alone cannot make a writer. There must be a man behind the book.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
“To write well is to think well, to feel well, and to render well; it is to possess at
once intellect, soul, and taste. “
George-Louis Leclerc de Buffon
“A man will turn over half a library to make one book.”
Samuel Johnson
“Reading make a full man, and writing an exact man.”
Lord Bacon

5. Introduction

6. “Learning to write fluently and expressively is the most
difficult of the macro-skills for all users regardless
whether the target language is a first, second or foreign
language. Yet, it is among the most useful skills
learners should learn and master”
(Doff, A. 2003: 33)
“Writing is the final product of several separate acts that
are hugely challenging to learn simultaneously. »
(CTL. 2004: 25)

7. Definition
Widdowson (1978:62): “states that writing is the
act of making up correct sentences and
transmitting them through the visual medium as
mark on paper”
Troyka (1987:3-4) states that: “writing is a way of
communicating a message to a reader for a
purpose. The purposes of writing are to express
one’s self, to provide information for one’s reader,
to persuade one’s reader, and to create a literary
work”.

8. Types of writing
• Narrative expository
• Descriptive persuasive

9. Writing as a process
1. Pre-writing
2. Drafting
3. Revising
4. Editing
5. Publishing

10. The importance of writing
• Writing is a practical means for fixing or
consolidating various language components(e.g.
vocabulary, syntax, etc)
• It is a means of reinforcing other skills. Before
and while writing, writers gather data or
information by observing, reading, listening,
talking to others, analyzing, synthesizing,
interpreting, and evaluating.
• If writing is adequately practised in the
classroom, it helps a lot with recycling and
generating content.

11. • While writers conceptualize and express ideas, their
ability to think logically and solve problems is
invigorated.
• Writing is an act of thought and a means of learning.
Writers write to think, to explore their environment
and the world with language, and to discover and
internalize meanings.
• Writing, then, helps a lot with empowering learners
and achieving their growth not only as language
learners, but also as independent intellectuals.
• (CSCE, 2007)

12. The writing sub-skills
» Spelling
» Word-order
» Appropriatness of language
» Arrangement of ideas
» Coherence and cohesion
» Critical thinking
» Note taking

13. Teacher,
why writing
is so
difficult?

14. “Why is writing so hard? It demands the integration of diverse cognitive,
memory, linguistic, motor, and affective systems, each of which makes its
own unique contribution to the writing process and the text that gets
written. Writers must juggle all of these systems simultaneously. Naturally,
if jugglers focus on how they are throwing and catching only one or two of
five balls, they are likely to drop the others. The key to keeping all the balls
in the air is to understand and master the many foundation skills required
for juggling so that they can be integrated fluidly. The same principle holds
for writing. »
(Singer, D. B. 2004: 18)

15. Teaching writing
• Pre-writing (teacher)
 introduce the topic
 introduce and summarize the main writing task
 Brainstorm ideas
while-writing
Fast writing
Select and reject ideas
Sort and order ideas
Decide on specific requirement, style, information, layout,
etc.

16. Focus on useful models
Plan the text
Get feedback
Prepare drafts
Edit
• Post-writing
Prepare final text
Students read their text and discuss the content

17. TEACHING WRITING
www.geoffbarton.co.uk
Model it
Demonstrate it
Practise it
Critique it
Scaffold it
Including ‘bad’ models
Show students the process
of writing
Correct/change/improve
Make it collaborative
Move from small to larger
sections

18. Conclusion

19. At the end, we can only confirm that writing is a
significant skill for learners as it helps them to present
and defend their ideas in the academic realm. Hence,
as teachers we have to work hard and think of new
ways to render our students good writers.

20. Bibliography
 Adrian Doff, (2003). Teach English: a training course for teachers. UK.
Cambridge university press?
 Jim Scriviner, (2001). « Learning teaching ». USA.
 Central Specialist Coordination of English. (2007). ENGLISH
LANGUAGE GUIDELINES FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS:
COMMON CORE, FIRST YEAR, AND SECOND YEAR
BACCALAUREATE. Ministry of education.MOROCCO