7 Good Writing Traits: Otherwise known as the 6 1 writing traits

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7 Good Writing TraitsOtherwise known as the 6
1 writing traits

• How writing is assessed

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• I always did well on essay tests. Just put
  everything you know on there, maybe youll hit
  it. And then you get the paper back from the
  teacher and shes written just one word across
  the entire page, vague. I thought vague was
  kind of vague. Id write underneath it unclear
  and send it back. Shes return it to me,
  ambiguous. Id send it back to her, cloudy.
  Were still corresponding to this day. hazy.
  muddy Jerry Seinfeld (SeinLanguage)

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• What do teachers look for when grading students
  writing? How do we grade papers? What do
  teachers teach when we teach writing?

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• Students have been conditioned to believe that
  great papers just happen. That they are a
  guessing game and that one finds out what to do
  after it is too late.
• Margie Krest Adapting the Portfolio to Meet
  Student Needs English Journal February 1990
  

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7 Good Writing Traits!

• Its not a program or curriculum.
• The Seven Traits is a scoring guide or a tool
  for writing.
• It is a shared vocabulary for teachers and
  students.
• The seven traits is an instrument teachers can
  use to provide accurate, reliable feedback to
  students and to help guide instruction.
• The seven traits were developed in the 1980s by
  teachers from across the country.

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• These teachers evaluated thousands of papers at
  all grade level and identified common
  characteristics of good writing.
• These qualities became the seven-traits.

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The 7 Traits

• The seven traits are Ideas, Organization,
  Voice, Word Choice, Sentence Fluency, Conventions
  and Presentation.

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Ideas

• The ideas are the heart of the message, the
  content of the piece, the main theme, together
  with the details that enrich and develop that
  theme.

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Sound Ideas..

• It all makes sense
• I know this topic well
• I have included the most interesting details
• My paper has a purpose
• Once you start reading, you will not want to
  stop.

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Organization

• Organization is the internal structure of a piece
  of writing, the tread of central meaning, the
  logical and sometimes intriguing pattern of the
  ideas.

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Good Organization..

• My beginning will interest the reader!
• Everything ties together.
• It builds to the good parts.
• You can follow it easily.
• At the end it feels finished and makes you think.

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Voice

• The voice is the heart and soul , the magic, the
  wit, along with the feeling and conviction of the
  individual writing coming out through the words.

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Individual Voice..

• This really sounds like me!
• Ive been honest and written what I think and
  feel.
• Can you feel my commitment to this topic?
• I want you to experience my writing with me.
• I know why Im writing and who my audience is.
• I bet youll want to read this to someone.

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• We must teach ourselves to recognize our own
  voice. We want to write in a way that is natural
  for us, that grows out of the way we think, the
  way we see, the way we care. But to make that
  voice effective we must develop it, extending our
  natural voice through the experience of writing
  on different subjects for different audiences, of
  using our voice as we perform many writing
  tasks. Donald
  Murray (Write to Learn)

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Word Choice

• Word choice is the use of rich, colorful, precise
  language that moves and enlightens the reader.

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Powerful Words

• This is the best way to say this.
• My words create mind pictures!
• Ive tried new ways to say everyday things.
• Listen to the power in my verbs.
• Some of the words and phrases linger in my mind.

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• Powerful writers and powerful speakers have
  two wells they can draw on for that power one
  is the well of rhythm, the other is the well of
  vocabulary. But vocabulary and a sense of rhythm
  are almost impossible to teach in the narrow
  sense of the word. So how are children expected
  to develop a sense of rhythm or a wide
  vocabulary? By being read to, alive, a lot!
• Mem Fox (Radical Reflections, 1993)

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Sentence Fluency

• Sentence fluency in the rhythm and flow of the
  language, the sound of word patterns, the way in
  which the writing plays to the earnot just to
  the eye.

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Sentence Fluency..

• My sentences begin in different ways.
• Some sentences are short and some are long.
• It just sounds good as I read it aloud-it flows.
• My sentences have power and punch.
• I have sentence sense.

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Conventions

• Conventions are the mechanical correctness of the
  piecespelling, grammar and usage, paragraphing,
  use of capitals and punctuation.

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Correct Conventions..

• I dont have many mistakes in my paper.
• I have used capitals correctly.
• Periods, commas, exclamation marks and quotation
  marks are in the right places.
• Almost every words is spelled correctly.
• I remembered to indent each paragraph.
• It would not take long to get the ready to share.

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Presentation

• Presentation zeros in on the form and layout of
  the text and its readability the piece should be
  pleasing to the eye.

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Good Presentation

• My paper looks neat and is legible.
• Someone could easily read my paper.
• Editing is easy all you have to do is cross
  out the wrong words. Mark Twain

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• I believe it is important not only to share a
  common vision for lifelong learning and literacy
  but a common vocabulary for how we talk about
  such issues.
• 
  
  Dr. Beverly Ann Chinn, NCTE President,
  1995-1996 University of Montana
  Department of English

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• In evaluating writing, I know my grading system
  has to take into account all the abilities that
  come into play when a writer writes. Writing
  isnt one ability but a combination of
  manyexperimenting, planning, choosing,
  questioning, anticipating, organizing, reading,
  listening, reviewing, editing, and on and on.
• Nancie Atwell (In the Middle)

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• If people cannot write well, they cannot think
  well, and if they cannot think well, others will
  do their thinking for them.
• George Orwell