Teaching English as a Foreign Language

Chapter 11: Write or Wrong? Teaching Writing Lessons 165

Figure 11-2:
Structuring
an informal
email.

Subject: .............................................................................................................

Greeting:

Paragraph 1: How are things?

Topic sentence

Details and examples

Paragraph 2: The holiday

Topic sentence

Details and examples

Paragraph 3: Plans to meet

Topic sentence

Details and examples

Paragraph 4:

Closing Salutation:

Name:

Closing comments

I look forward to ....................

Setting the writing task and explaining the stages

After preparing the students’ minds for the task, you need to tell them what

it is, whether they will be working alone or collaborating with someone else,

and how long they have to complete it.

Student follow three stages when writing: The first is drafting or planning, the

second is actually writing and the third is reviewing. I cover each in the fol-

lowing sections.

Thinking through the drafting stage

For the first stage, drafting, students have already considered how to use a

template to good effect (see ‘Building structure’ a bit earlier in the chapter),

but still need time to gather their ideas. At this stage the student should also

make sure that each aspect of the task will be covered in the text.