1. Six Traits
“I always did well on essay tests. Just put everything you know on there, maybe you’ll hit it. And then you get the paper back from the teacher and she’s written just one word across the entire page, ‘vague.’ I thought vague was kind of vague. I’d write underneath it ‘unclear’ and send it back. She’s return it to me, ‘ambiguous’. I’d send it back to her, ‘cloudy’. We’re still corresponding to this day…. hazy…. muddy…” Jerry Seinfeld (SeinLanguage)

2. What do teachers look for when grading students’ writing
What do teachers look for when grading students’ writing? How do we grade papers? What do teachers teach when we teach writing?

3. The Six Traits
The six traits are: Ideas, Organization, Voice, Word Choice, Sentence Fluency, & Conventions

4. Ideas
The ideas are the heart of the message, the content of the piece, the main theme, together with the details that enrich and develop that theme.

5. Sound Ideas.. It all makes sense I know this topic well
I have included the most interesting details
My paper has a purpose
Once you start reading, you will not want to stop.

6. Organization
Organization is the internal structure of a piece of writing, the tread of central meaning, the logical and sometimes intriguing pattern of the ideas.

7. Good Organization.. My beginning will interest the reader!
Everything ties together.
It builds to the good parts.
You can follow it easily.
At the end it feels finished and makes you think.

8. Voice
The voice is the heart and soul , the magic, the wit, along with the feeling and conviction of the individual writing coming out through the words.

9. Individual Voice.. This really sounds like me!
I’ve been honest and written what I think and feel.
Can you fell my commitment to this topic?
I want you to experience my writing with me.
I know why I’m writing and who my audience is.
I bet you’ll want to read this to someone.

10. “We must teach ourselves to recognize our own voice
“We must teach ourselves to recognize our own voice. We want to write in a way that is natural for us, that grows out of the way we think, the way we see, the way we care. But to make that voice effective we must develop it, extending our natural voice through the experience of writing on different subjects for different audiences, of using our voice as we perform many writing tasks.” Donald Murray (Write to Learn)

11. Word Choice
Word choice is the use of rich, colorful, precise language that moves and enlightens the reader.

12. Powerful Words… This is the best way to say this.
My words create mind pictures!
I’ve tried new ways to say everyday things.
Listen to the power in my verbs.
Some of the words and phrases linger in my mind.

13. “Powerful writers and powerful speakers have two wells they can draw on for that power: one is the well of rhythm,; the other is the well of vocabulary. But vocabulary and a sense of rhythm are almost impossible to “teach” in the narrow sense of the word. So how are children expected to develop a sense of rhythm or a wide vocabulary? By being read to, alive, a lot!”
Mem Fox (Radical Reflections, 1993)

14. Sentence Fluency
Sentence fluency in the rhythm and flow of the language, the sound of word patterns, the way in which the writing plays to the ear—not just to the eye.

15. Sentence Fluency.. My sentences begin in different ways.
Some sentences are short and some are long.
It just sounds good as I read it aloud-it flows.
My sentences have power and punch.
I have “sentence sense.”

16. Conventions
Conventions are the mechanical correctness of the piece—spelling, grammar and usage, paragraphing, use of capitals and punctuation.

17. Correct Conventions.. I don’t’ have many mistakes in my paper.
I have used capitals correctly.
Periods, commas, exclamation marks and quotation marks are in the right places.
Almost every words is spelled correctly.
I remembered to indent each paragraph.
It would not take long to get the ready to share.

18. “If people cannot write well, they cannot think well, and if they cannot think well, others will do their thinking for them.”
George Orwell