WRITING Writting, which serves as a reinforcement for reading, is one way of providing variety in classroom procedures, and makes possible individualized work in large classes.  Writting tends to increase retention and makes available a source for later reference.  Very importantly, it provides a student with physical evidence of his achievements and becomes a source whereby he can measure his improvement. Skill in writting is a basic necessity in the academic environment whereas in nonacademic environment it deals with writing reports, term papers, letters, messages, memos, invitations, etc.  Practice in this type of writting is referred to as composition -- writing beyond the sentence level, putting togetther words in a grammatically acceptable form and ordering the resultant sentences in an appropriate way.         The goals of writting are: ---  to express ideas and opinions in written form ---  to describe a person, an object, a place, etc. ---  to define a concept or an idea and interpret it with examples ---  to tell a story or sequence of events ---  to discuss or argue a topic as an article ---  to report an event, an experiment,, or a scientific fact ---  to teach the written discourse of English. TEACHING POINTS IN WRITTING On the BEGINNING LEVEL, Ss concentrate on points I  and II, and they also learn the principles of organization. On the INTERMEDIATE and ADVANCED LEVELS,  Ss concentrate on point III, but they still need to work on  sentence level language skills to develop ideas in writing. I.  Correct Language Form:  A.  Controlled (Guided) Writting: Where the S follow a written model and produce his/her own correct composition.      There are basically four kinds of controlled composition writting exercises derive from (1)  Substitution Tables (1a).  Single Substitution Table e.g.    He    is     happy       today.                            ill                            surprised                            exhausted 1b).  Correlative Substitution Table e.g.    Two of our old students      went to     England     last year.            My parents                                        his town            David’s sister                                     France            He                                                     Hawaii            She                                                    their school            Children                                             her country (1c).  Multiple Substitution Tables e.g.    The    children   stole   the    apples.            student/ borrow/ book             woman/  play/  piano OR Rewritting a model paragraph beginning with “Tom was a young man ...” Model: Mary was a foolish girl who thought only about beautiful clothes. One morning, she was walking along a road, carrying a basketful of  eggs. She was going to the city to sell them and to buy clothes with the money. She was walking in the middle of the road, thinking of the clothes she was going to buy. Suddenly, a big car came around the corner. Mary jumped out of the way, dropped the basket, and all the eggs were broken. Student’s Composition: Tom was a young man who cared mainly about parties. One night he was drinking at a party, and singing to the guests to amuse them and to impress Mary with his cleverness. He was standing on the chair in the corner, singing of the girl he was going to marry. Suddenly, the host came into the room. Tom jumped off the chair, sprained his ankle, and all the fun was spoiled. (2)  Models with directions for rewritting This is the most common type of controlled composition which employs a written paragraph with directions for rewritting it.  The written model serves as a model to guide the Ss to write a correct compositions. Models should be short, contemporary, and simple in style with a careful and obvious organization, but in excellent English. In Advanced level, models should include a variety of syntactic features and they should represent a variety of writing: narrative, descriptive, reflective, factual, analytical, critical, instructional, and hortarory. For lower levels, T should limit the vocabulary, and the conversion must be controlled.  That is, either Ss can convert a structure or they can’t; the difficulty lies in finding or writing convertible structures. Model passages lend themselves to two kinds of writting activity: (2a).   Conversions There are three types of conversions: 1.  Substitutions Conversions: As with substitution tables, there are single, correlative, and multiple substitution conversions. They are used to practice exercises in the grammatical categories of gender, number, and tense, and replacing synonyms and transition words. e.g. correlative substution conversion on gender changes Assignment: Rewritting the entire passage, changing the word Father to Mother each time it appears with the necessary pronouns, nouns, and names. Model Father had the same character as a boy. I suppose, that he had as a man, and he was too independent to care if people thought his name fancy... Student’s Composition: Mother had the same character as a girl, I suppose, that she had as a woman, and she was too independent to care if people thought her name fancy... e.g.  Multiple Substitution Conversion Assignment: Rewritting the entire passage, changing ...400 million people now speak English to ... 400 million men are now learning to cook.  Follow the general structure of the model but make whatever changes in vocabulary that are necessary for the passage to make sense. Use your imagination freely. Model “The National Interest and Teaching of English as a Foreign Language”, a document prepared by the National Council of Teachers of English, quotes a conservative estimate that 400 million people now speak English. Since a very large part of this number speaks English as a foreign or second language is immediately apparent... Student’s Composition: “The National Interest and Cooking of Kebap as a Turkish Meal”, a document prepared by the National Council of Turkish Cooks, declares a conservative estimate that 400 million men are now learning to cook Kebap... 2.  Transformation Conversion: The usual transformation conversions are exercises on changing the imperative to various tenses, passive to active, statements to questions, and questions to answers, negative to positive, adjectives and adverbs to clauses and phrases, direct to indirect speech OR just opposite. There are three types of transformation Conversion exercises, namely integration, reduction, and transposition. e.g. Typical Transformation Conversion Assignment:  Change the following sentences from passive to active voice.If there is no agent you must supply one as the subject in the active voice. 1.   First I was directed to my seat by the stewardess. 2.   We were told to fasten our seatbelts. 3.   A few minutes after take-off, magazines and newspapers were distributed. 4.   I was given some gum to chew because my ears hurt. 5.   We were given instructions on what to do in case of emergency. Student’s  Composition: First the stewardess directed me to my seat.  Then she told us to fasten our seatbelts. A few minutes after take-off, the stewardess distributed magazines and newspapers.  One of them gave me some gum to chew because my ears hurt. The captain gave us instructions on what to do in case of emergency. (2b).    Semicontrolled composition (3)  Pictorial Control (4)  Exercises with semicontrol where content and ideas are suggested but with a minimum suggestion for structural patterns B.  Semi-controlled Writting: Where the S moves beyond the controlled writting to achieve a proficiency in free writting. C.   Free Writting : Where the S writes whatever comes into his head.   II.   Mechanics of Punctuation: III.   Organization of Contents: The Methods/Approaches used in Writing Courses 1.   The Controlled-to-Free Approach       Sentence -------> Paragraph --------> Article The Goal:  -- to reinforce grammatical patterns                   -- to use syntax properly                   -- to reinforce punctuation, ortography, etc. Activities:  -- sentence exercises                    -- transformation drills, changing questions into statements, present to past, singular to plural                    --  combine simple sentences into complex ones                    --  only advanced Ss are allowed to write free compositions 2.   The Free-Writing Approach ---  writing again and again on the same topic ---  quantity is more important than quality ---  content is more important than accuracy The Goal:  Ss  will write on any topic they are interested in without  worrying making mistakes. Activities:  ---  writing for an audience                   ---   writing for content                   ---   almost no error correction 3.   The Paragraph-Pattern Approach       Analysis  -------> Imitation --------> Form your own Paragraph The Goal:  ---   to reinforce paragraph organization                   ---   to improve main sentence and supporting ideas in relation to each other                       ---   to reinforce sequencing in a paragraph Activities:  ---  Ss copy paragraphs, analyze the form of model paragraphs, and imitate model passages                    ---   Ss put scrambled sentences into a paragraph order                    ---   Ss identify general or specific statements                    ---   Ss choose or invent an appropriate topic sentence, they  insert or delete sentences 4.   The Grammar-Syntax-Organization Approach            Analysis -----> Imitation ------> Form your own Paragraph The Goal:  --- This approach links the purpose of a piece of writing to the forms that are needed to                        convey the message. Activities:  --- an organizational plan based on chronology (first, second, ...etc.)                   ---  writing a recipe                   ---  writing a clear set of instructions  on how to operate a  machine, etc.                 5.   The Communicative Approach      Why am I writing this?  -------->  Who will read it?                 Purpose                                          Audience The Goal:   Writing ideas or opinions in order to communicate. Activities:   ---  writing for an audience                       e.g.  writing for a pen-pal 6.   The Process Approach The Goal:  To improve writing subskills in the writing process in the long-run. Activities:  1.   Ss choose a topic 2.   They identify their audience 3.    They do same research related to the topic 4.    They plan their organization 5.    They prepare and write their first draft 6.    They analyze their first draft with the help of their teacher 7.    They write their second draft by taking into consideration the feedback that they got from their friend 8.     They may write several drafts in this process untill they write the final draft