What Makes an Effective Writer?

What is good writing? You know it when you read it, but how do we explain it? And more importantly,  how do we teach it? 

School experience leave the impressions on students and writers that good writing involves having no mistakes, grammatical or spelling errors. But good and effective writing is much more than that. 

What is Effective Writing? 

According to the article by Kathleen Cali, effective writing has 5 features: focus, organization, support and elaboration, and convections. 

1. Focus

Focus is the topic established by the author in response to the writing task at hand. If the writer is confused about the topic, then the focus is weakened. The focus is the heart of the piece. What the writer is writing bout must be clear and well established in order to know what the text is about. 

2. Organization 

Organization is the completeness and progression of the idea by forming an effective beginning, middle and end. There is a  clear progression and relation of the ideas and events from one to the next. This specifically targets the overall expectation form the Ontario Curriculum which states students will generate, gather, and organize ideas and information to write for an intended purpose and audience as the organization of ideas throughout the text is important when formulating ideas.  
 

3. Support and Elaboration 

This is the development of the topic, which is presented clearly. The details must be related to the focus and their must be a relationship within the subject matter. 

4. Style

This is the control of the the language which is appropriate for the task and audience. Sentence fluency involves using a variety of seance structures to establish effective relationships between ideas which are appropriate to the task. This can target the overall expectation that students will draft and revise their writing, using a variety of informational, literary, and graphic forms and stylistic elements appropriate for the purpose and audience.

5. Convections

This is the correctness is sentence formation to convey the ideas. 

To pull directly from the Ontario Curriculum, the overall expectations for writing are: 

1. generate, gather, and organize ideas and information to write for an intended purpose and audience;
   
2. draft and revise their writing, using a variety of informational, literary, and graphic forms and stylistic elements appropriate for the purpose and audience;
   
3. use editing, proofreading, and publishing skills and strategies, and knowledge of lan- guage conventions, to correct errors, refine expression, and present their work effectively;
   
4. reflect on and identify their strengths as writers, areas for improvement, and the strate- gies they found most helpful at different stages in the writing process.
   

What are the Basic Characteristics of Effective Writing?

As stated on ThoughtCo,  theses are some of the basic characteristics of effective wiring:

• -Good writing has a clearly defined purpose.

• -It makes a definite point.
• -It supports that point with specific information.
• -The information is clearly connected and arranged.
• -The words are appropriate, and the sentences are concise, emphatic, and correct.

Good writing is the product of practice and hard work. The ability to write is not a gift, so if you are willing to work, you too can have good effective writing. 

What are Effective Writing Practices? 

Effective writing practices are shown to be successful in enhaching suydnets writing. Taken from the research conducted by Rogers & Graham, there are 7 recommendations for teaching writing. 

1. Dedicate time to writing, with writing occurring across the curriculum, and involve students in various forms of writing over time.
   
   "The more a man writes, the more he can write". A good rule is that students should be writing for at least one hour a day and dedicate this time to the wiring process of planning, revising and publishing. 
   
   Through this dedicated time for wring students are able to use it for communication with others, informing others, persuading, learning, entertaining, reflecting, responding and demonstrating. 
   
   
   
2. Increase students’ knowledge about writing.
   
   In order to become a effective writer, students need to understand the characteristic of good writing and the different forms of writing. This can be done through reading. Reading, at the same of providing knowledge o n the subject, it also provides an example of good writing. This can act as a model for students to follow and learn to understand the flow text. After reading a story, teachers should create discussions on how the author used their words to portray certain feelings or ideas in order to engage students and generate their knowledge from thinking. 
   
   
3. Foster students’ interest, enjoyment, and motivation to write.
   
   How can we create an environment where students want to write and enjoy it? This can be done through creating writing assignments for students which are meaningful and serve a real purpose. Encouraging students writing efforts its also very important as we need students to enjoy what it is that they are doing. Using collaboration and imaging is also a very important tool as it can help to create a positive attitude about writing as well as creating enjoyable activities. 
   
   
4. Help students become strategic writers.
   
   Encouraging students i the processes of writing, planning, drafting and revising, are not enough - they need more direct assistance. This can involve using think sheets and graphic organizers to structure the students planning and help them identify the purpose. Instead of just focusing on writing, teaching students planning, revising and drastic skills is also very important so they can use theses strategies independently. According to Graham and Perin, and effective method for teaching these strategies is: 
   
   • Describe the writing strategy and the purpose for learning it.
   • Make it clear when students should use the strategy.
   • Show students how to use the strategy.
   • Provide students with practice applying the strategy, giving assistance as needed
   
   
   • Continue instruction until students can use the strategy independently.
   • Encourage students to apply the strategy in appropriate situations once instruction has ended. • Ask students to evaluate how the strategy improved their writing. 
   
   
   
5. Teach basic writing skills to mastery.
   
   There are many skills that we can teach our students, such as handwriting, typing, spelling and punctuation. This is so important because until they are mastered, the mental energy put into applying these skills can not be redirected into the other essential writing processes. This can large the overall expectation that students will use editing, proofreading, and publishing skills and strategies, and knowledge of language conventions, to correct errors, refine expression, and present their work effectively.
   
6. Take advantage of technological writing tools.
   
   There are tons of technological tools that can be used for writing. Some that teachers may want to consider include speech synthesis and word prediction programs which help students that experience difficulties with spelling and writing to help them along the planning process. 
   
   
   
7. Use assessment to gauge students’ progress and needs. 
   
   Assessment is very important as it allows teachers to see if their writing programs are actually working. Teachers often focus their attentions to the following aspects of students writing: 
   
   
   
   • Are ideas in text clearly presented and fully developed?
   • Is the text easy to follow and logically organized?
   • Are words used effectively and precisely?
   • Are sentences varied to promote uency, rhythm, and natural speech patterns?
   • Does the text capture appropriate tone or mood to make maximum impact on the reader? 
   • Are there spelling, usage, and grammar errors?
   • Is the written product legible, attractive, and accessible? 
   
   Alongside assessment, here are some of the adaptations that may be helpful when assessing those with difficulties: 
   
   

   • Provide extra instruction in planning, revising, text organization, sentence construction, handwriting, or spelling.
     
   • Reteach skills and strategies that are not mastered.
     
   • Develop small-group and individual mini-lessons to meet the needs of struggling writers
     
   • Modify writing assignments so they better match students’ capabilities.
     
   • Allow extra time to complete writing assignments.
     
   • Praise both performance and effort frequently 
     
   • Increase frequency of conferences with students about their writing and works in progress.
     
   • Establish procedures where struggling writers can obtain help from peers.
     
     It is also said that assessment should not be limited to teachers, but self assessment is also very important as it allows the student to understand their own progress to help them improve by achieving their own wiring goals. 

Once a basic writing structure has been established, techniques and assessment strategies should them be implemented in order to increase motivation and ultimately create a good and effective writer.