Writing+Process

For some reason 'Essays' still hold a position of honour as crowning achievements of literacy. Essays as a symbol of rigor, ignor that our world is about stories, not essays.

A model for the writing process can be very similar to the model for telling stories. The model helps give support; however, the process is likely much more recursive in nature.

The following are aspects of the writing process and may not flow in a linear fashion.

Pre-writing - Brainstorming, planning, building ideas, setting the stage, choosing audience and purpose. Drafting - Getting ideas recorded, starting to organize Revisions - Rework to improve structure, logic and ideas. Focus on improving meaning, style and form Editing- Improving Grammar and conventions Proofreading - Checking for errors Publishing- Producing a 'final' or 'clean' copy - Sharing with an audience - May include additional features - Images, illustrations, dedications, author notes, title page etc

Performance Standards are another tool to support growing as a writer or storyteller. The BC Ministry of Education has developed Writing Performance Standards for K to 10. Working with Performance standards allows students and teachers to both have the same language. Within the Performance Standards for Writing, the following definitions are applied:

Meaning - ideas and information, including development and use of detail Style - clarity, variety, and impact of language Form - attention to the “rules” of the particular form of writing Conventions- spelling, punctuation, grammar, sentence structure, and legibility

There are many writing activities that focus on or use specific aspects of the writing in the 21st Century. Writing is much more than storing words on a piece of paper. The primary function of writing is to communicate. The communication can be directed to the world, the an individual or group, or to ones self. Since we are looking at communication rather than putting letters in order on a page, we need to consider the variety of ways to communicate to the world, individuals, or to ones self.

I know growing up most of my writing instruction was on Conventions. The beauty of storytelling is that the language of stories is much more fluid. This places the focus on meaning and using the wrappers of style, form and conventions to enhance not define the story.

Here are a few ways to capture or record story:

Visual Focus  Webbing Image Viewing Image Capture Image Edit / Creation Image Organizing Photography Book Making Graphic Novel Sketching

Linear Text Based  Note-taking / Annotating Word Processing Collaborative Documents Book Making Peer Editing Text Publishing (Blogs, Wikis)

Audio Based  Podcasting / Voice Recording Music Video Recording with no video