WRITING SKILLS

WRITING SKILLS
Writing is not as natural as listening or speaking. It is not considered as a biological need.
Therefore it has to be purposefully inculcated. Writing is for communication of ideas in written
form. It is the visual representation of speech. Writing has two main aspects, the mechanics of
writing and the purpose and organization of writing.
Anne Raimes gives the following as sub-skills of writing:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

Mechanics of writing- handwriting, spelling and punctuation.

Word choice i.e., vocabulary, idiom, phrase, tone etc.
Organization i.e., ideas, paragraphs, topics, cohesion and unity
Syntax i.e., structure and boundaries of sentence, choice of stylistics etc.
Grammar i.e., verb agreement, articles, pronouns etc.
Contents i.e., relevance, clarity, originality. Logic, sequence etc.
Writing process i. e., getting ideas, writing drafts, revising etc.

8. Purpose i.e., the relevance and justification for writing.

According to David Palmer writing involves graphic, visual, grammatical, and expressive or
stylistics, rhetoric and organizational skills.

Mechanics of Writing
By learning the mechanics of writing the students know how to hold the writing materials, at
what suitable distance and how the physical posture should be etc. the main aim is to teach the
student how to write.
A few decades ago four types of English alphabet were taught to students
1.
2.
3.
4.

Civil round hand and

Cursive writing(for handwriting)
The block capital letters
Small letters(for print)

But now only block capital letters and cursive letters are being taught
In writing letters should be either vertical or little slanting towards the right not slanting to the
left. The body of letters should have uniform size. The letters in words should be distinctive,
proper spacing should be given between words (one space), between the beginning of a sentence
and the ending of a sentence (two spaces). Committing mistakes in spelling and punctuation will
be construed badly by the readers

Characteristics of Good Handwriting

We should be aware that ones writing is either for oneself to be read later or for others to be read
sooner or later and also to be preserved for the posterity. It should be readable with
comprehension without any strain or vexation. The characteristics of good handwriting are
1. Distinctiveness: each letter in a word and each word in a sentence will be distinct.
2. Spacing: there will be a space between words and two between sentences. To begin with
a new paragraph a line is left
3. Size of the letters: the body and stroke of the letters are uniform, for small letters and
capital letters. At the beginning of learning to write, the size may be exaggerated; in
normal adult writing proper size is important
4. Simplicity: a good handwriting is simple and comfortable to see and easy to read. By
simplicity it means there is no ornamentation which makes reading difficult
5. Horizontality: writing lines is conspicuously horizontal. In the early stage students may
be allowed to write on linear paper- double lined or four lined

6. Vertical/ slanting towards the right: letters are to be written either vertically or slightly
slanting to the right, never to the left
7. Punctuation marks are necessary at the early stage especially, to read by phrases and to
get the meaning easily and unequivocally.

Punctuation
Punctuation marks are necessary the early stages especially, to reads by phrases and to get the
meaning early and unequivocally .punctuation marks includes capitalization, full stop(.),
comma(,), semicolon(;), colon(:),question mark(?), inverted comma( ),apostrophes(),
exclamation marks(!) etc. In modern writing there is a trend of reducing punctuation marks.

COMPOSITION
Composition according to Chapman is in fact, almost any written exercise. In this sense from
supplying a missing word to writing an essay all comes under composition. Writing is a mode of
expression just as speech. Clear thinking is nurtured by writing experience. Composition
exercises require skills in the mechanics of writing and recalling appropriate words and
structures. Written composition is divided in to two major classes guided composition and free
composition.

1. GUIDED COMPOSITION:
Guided composition is also called controlled or directed composition. The teacher guides
the students using the controlled vocabulary and structures. After sufficient oral practice
students use the words and sentences to write the composition. They can write only
within the frame work stipulated by the teacher. Guided composition should not be
resorted for long. It is only like holding a hand of a child while it is learning to walk.
Substitution tables provide a lot of scope. The student may be asked to write a certain
number of possible meaningful sentences from the table (complex types of substitution
tables can be designed for higher classes )
I
He
She
They
You

Are
am
is

Walking in her kitchen

Doing homework
Eating a banana
Playing football

Making a story from the points as given below: example: A crocodile-carrying a

monkey on its back crossing a river asks for the monkeys heart hanging on
a branch of a tree on the bank - leaps to the tree escapes .( a suitable title
should be given to the story)
A cloze passage : Fill in the blank places suitably .( Teacher can find out a nice
passage or make one himself )
---------------- On a snake

One day I was ---1---- my teaching notes in my ---2--- .I got ---3---, so I went for a
walk in my garden . I stood for sometime ----4--- into the sky.
Suddenly, I felt something ---5--- under my left foot. There I saw a dark brown short fat
---6---. The tail of the snake was ---7--- about but where were its ---8---? I looked down
& saw I was ---9--- on it .
The list of words to be supplied is given below:
Title: stepping on a snake
1.
2.
3.
4.

Writing
House
Tired
Looking

5.moving
6.snake
7.thrashing
8.Head

9. standing

Picture composition : a series of pictures connected with a complete story are

displayed to the students .The teacher starts oral work in the class beginning
with the first one in the series and ending with the last . After thorough oral
work the students individually or in group write the composition. They give a
suitable title also to it.
Visual aids : Instead of pictures route maps, charts, pie diagram, bar diagram & a
variety of other visual aids can be made use of for guided composition
exercises in the classroom , grading them according to the students level of
skills .
2. Free composition
In free composition the students are not externally controlled very much regarding
vocabulary structure etc. They are free to write creatively according to their interests,
imagination, originality& style, guidance of the teacher being reduced. Free composition
is meant for students who have learnt English for 3 or 4 years
Paragraph writing: A piece of writing as a free composition can be a single
paragraph or an essay consisting of some paragraphs .If an essay constitutes

A big unit of integrated ideas dealing with a major topic, a paragraph is a small
unit contributing ideas to the main topic. A paragraph should have topic sentences
& major and minor supporting sentences. The sentences should cohere with the
idea of the paragraph & the paragraph should cohere with the whole essay.
Sentences should be linked together as far as possible with transitional
phrases for smooth reading & logical understanding
Paraphrasing: Paraphrasing is a higher skill of explaining & interpreting
meanings of words, phrases& idioms in a given passage in words of the student
himself. Interpreting a poem in prose in a critical and appreciative manner is
paraphrasing. Students should have good stock of active vocabulary and thinking
power for paraphrasing. The students should be able to approach the passage and
see things which others are not likely to see in the same way. By paraphrasing the
message of the paragraph should not be obliterated.
Essay writing: Of all types of composition exercises, essay writing is, perhaps,
the most common form the student will have to come across in his future studies
or career. Essay writing will reflect the students linguistic ability. It can take
various topics and styles like-descriptive, narrative, reflective, imaginative etc.
Facts to be written should be thought out in great detail in advance and the essay
should take shape in the students mind before it is put in black and white. Proper
arrangement of ideas is an important thing. Language should be appropriate to
the subject that is simple, serious, humorous etc.
Prcis writing: Prcis writing is a still higher skill. The writer has to have
thorough understanding and insight in to the right message of the passage given
for prcis writing. It is reducing a passage in to any smaller, say, one third, and
one forth and so on according to purpose. Professional journalists have, to reduce
speeches and discourses for reporting in newspapers in the way we are writing
prcis.

Correction Rules
Correction should be done in the in the presence of each individual student if possible. Common
mistakes can be discussed orally and using the black board. Class correction and self correction
need be encouraged. The pupil finding ten mistakes by himself in his writing will be better than
the teacher guiding a hundred in it. There are about sixty correction signals in professional
journalism and for proof reading process. But we can use a minimum number of such signals to
use for correction procedure in the classroom. The signals should be marked in the margin of the
page.
SYMBOL

MEANING

A word or punctuation mark is omitted on the line.

/
P
S

T
G
W
W.O
R

A word ought to be omitted in this line

Punctuation/ capitalization
Spelling needs correction
New paragraph is better to be made
An error in tense form
Grammatical error
Wrong word
Word order is wrong
Repetition is to be removed
It is a good point
Your idea is not clear

CONCLUSION
Evaluating writing skill broadly is to be seen in two areas namely the mechanics of writing and
the organization presentation of ideas. It is a part of the teaching learning process. The legibility,
simplicity, uniformity, distinctiveness, spacing, spelling, punctuation, speed etc are essential for
an effective written matter.