Q. What is process writing? How can you make your students independent in writing with the help of process writing? Explain with suitable examples.
Ans:
Process writing is one of the approaches of teaching writing which focuses on the process of writing that the writer goes through in real life writing process such as while writing a research article or thesis. This approach to teaching writing focuses on the hidden process involved in the production of a piece of writing rather than the final output.
This approach to teaching writing takes writing as a recursive process in which the writer goes through several stages of planning, outlining, drafting, revising and editing. This approach of teaching writing takes writing as a messy process rather than a neat and clean one.
In this approach the idea or information is considered more important than the structure or a format of writing. Process approach is more appropriate for teaching creative or free writing in which the learners have more freedom on what to write and how to write it.
I will make my learners independent in writing with the help of process writing by engaging the learners in the actual writing process in my guidance and constant support. For this, I will lead them through the following stages- Planning
At this stage, the students are involved in generating ideas for their writing. For example, if the students are writing an essay on " My Village" they are involved in brainstorming activity. They are asked to think about the topic and write down any ideas that comes to their mind. The students may write some points such as- Salyankot
- Lies in central Dhading
- Poor road facility
- Rich in cultural and religious heritage
- Full of natural beauty
- One famous temple
- One high school and health centre
The teacher supports to generate ideas and suggest some sources like books or internet related materials, if the information from brainstorming is not sufficient. Once the ideas have been collected the students are asked to organize their notes into different subheadings.
Brainstorming
Brainstorming involves thinking quickly and without any hesitation so as to produce as many ideas as possible in a given area or on a given topic or problem. In it, students think freely and put down all the ideas that come to their minds.
Spider gramSpider gram is also a very useful technique for gathering information. It is called mind map. It is a strategy for making notes on a topic, prior to writing. It is a structured strategy, which shows the hierarchical relationship of ideas. 2. Making an outline
At this stage, the students decide the overall structure of their writing. They will decide how many paragraphs they are going to write and in which order. For example, they may decide the following order for their writing essay.
- Introduction
- Body paragraph 1- geographical features of the village
- Body paragraph 2- facility and difficulties of the village
- Body paragraph 3- cultural aspects of the village
- Conclusion
3. Preparing the first draft
At this stage, the students prepare the first draft of their writing . They focuses on the readers and audience and write without worrying about to much grammatical accuracy. Meaning and message is more important here. This draft needs further fine tuning both in terms of content as well as language.
4. Revising, editing and preparing the final draft
At this stage, the students revise the content, edit the language and prepare the final version of their writing. Revising is concerned with content or subject matter and editing is concerned with language.
The first draft is never a perfect one and requires modification. Here, the students can check if some important information is missing, if some information is repeated, if some information is not in the right order and so on. They also check the grammar, spelling, punctuation and diction and prepare the fine-tuned version of their essay.
In this way, I can make my students independent in writing with this help of process approach. In the beginning it may take more time and energy but we should not be discouraged.
The first draft is never a perfect one and requires modification. Here, the students can check if some important information is missing, if some information is repeated, if some information is not in the right order and so on. They also check the grammar, spelling, punctuation and diction and prepare the fine-tuned version of their essay.
In this way, I can make my students independent in writing with this help of process approach. In the beginning it may take more time and energy but we should not be discouraged.