1. The Writing Process Ms. Hames’s 6 th Grade Language Arts Class

2. 5 Stages of the Writing Process  Prewriting  Drafting  Revising  Editing  Publishing

3. Prewriting  Also known as brainstorming  Begins the moment you start to collect ideas  Used to find your topic and ideas for writing.  Starts your ideas flowing  Includes all the planning steps before writing your first draft.

4. Prewriting continued  It can involve brainstorming, making a web, an outline, or a Venn Diagram.  Prewriting will help you to: * select a topic or manage a teacher directed topic * narrow the topic * consider the purpose and the audience *gather information * organize the information

5. Brainstorming Rest FamilyFood Thanksgiving Love Thanks BlessingsFriends Travel

6. Drafting  Involves developing your prewriting notes into connected sentences and paragraphs  Putting your ideas down on paper  You produce your first piece of writing.  The focus of the rough draft is on content, not the mechanics.

7. Drafting continued  After drafting you may want to:  share your writing with your classmates  hear how your writing sounds (by reading it aloud to yourself or others)

8. Revising  Taking another look at what you have already drafted  Improve what you’ve written  May include narrowing the focus of your writing, adding support and details, changing the tone or style, or even writing a completely new piece with a different focus and for a different audience

9. Editing  Also known as proofreading  Used to correct errors in spelling, grammar, and punctuation  Preparing the paper for publishing  Polish your work

10. Publishing  Also known as presenting  Involves formally sharing your finished piece of writing with an audience  turning your work in to your teacher  turn it in for publishing

11. Publishing continued  Ways to publish/present your work  oral presentation  class book  newspaper  literary magazines

12. Kinds of Writing  Persuasive  Narrative  Descriptive  Expository  Personal  Imaginative

13. Persuasive Writing  Writing used to construct an argument  Contains two sides-points of view  States an opinion and uses facts, examples, and reasons to convince readers

14. Constructing Persuasive Writing  Know your subjects-both sides  Present different sides, then TAKE A STAND  Give evidence to back up your position  Offer more than one reason  Save the best argument for last  Use transition words to show connections between ideas

15. Narrative Writing  Writing used to tell a real or an imaginary story  Must have a clear beginning, middle, and ending  Place events in chronological order (the order in which they occurred)

16. Constructing Narrative Writing  Decide on the main events (plot)  Describe the setting with visual details  Create interesting characters  Build toward an important turning point  Resolve the conflict or problem in the story

17. Descriptive Writing  Creates a vivid picture in words of a person, an object, or a scene  Uses specific details and sensory words to bring your description to life  Uses spatial order (arranges details according to their location)

18. Constructing Descriptive Writing  Create a picture in your mind  Relive an experience  Use specific, interesting, or unusual details  Use sensory words or phrases (sight, sound, smell, taste, touch)

19. Expository Writing  Explains with facts and examples or gives directions  Provides information  Use steps in a process in the supporting sentences of a paragraph that gives directions  recipes  driving directions, etc

20. Constructing Expository Writing  Collect the most important information  Predict the reader’s questions and answer them  Use enough details to thoroughly inform the reader  Teach the reader something new  Explain unusual words or terms

21. Personal Writing  Used to explore your own ideas  Be honest  Write about something of interest to you  Experiment with new ways to express yourself  Capture special moments

22. Examples of Personal Writing  Journals  Letters  Notes  Plays  Poems  Stories

23. Imaginative Writing  Used to engage your creativity  Uses unique topics  Takes a reader by surprise  Gives your reader something interesting to think about  Includes original details to get the reader’s imagination going

24. Let’s Get Started Writing!