Descriptions of the Reporting Categories Writing

The following descriptions outline what you should know and be able to do in this subject.

Composition

This topic includes those skills necessary for students to be successful writers. To produce good writing, you have to spend time preplanning and organizing. You also need to focus on maintaining a certain style. You should be able to plan your writing around a specific topic, format (informational, persuasive), and audience. You should also establish and use the same point of view throughout the piece. Once you have planned for the writing, you can gather the most valid and reliable information to create well-related paragraphs. The paragraphs should contain details and information that is centered on the topic and focus. Paragraphs should be organized into a logical order, beginning with an introduction and ending with a conclusion. You should also check your work for different types and lengths of sentences, precise language, and consistent tone and voice.

Set a timer for two minutes. During this time, brainstorm as many potential topics as you can. Some examples are recycling or the Atlantic Ocean. When the timer runs out, reset it again for three more minutes. Use this time to decide on a writing format for each topic and then create a thesis statement for each. Set the timer again for two more minutes. Now determine the writing tasks for each of your topics. Once again run the timer for two more minutes. This time you will decide on an audience for each of the topics and tasks. When you are done, you should have a list of at least six thesis statements with a task and audience for each topic.

Revising and Editing

This topic includes those skills you need to check your writing. Once you are finished writing a piece, the next steps are revising and editing. When revising work, you should first check that it accurately addressed the purpose, audience, and genre. Next you make any necessary changes to improve style, word choice, and sentence variety. When editing the work, you should ensure you used correct spelling, capitalization, punctuation, parts of speech, and complete sentences. Sometimes you need to go through several rounds of revising and editing to create a well-written product.

Write down a list of all those editing areas that you need to focus on when editing your work. Some areas you might focus on are: when to use capital letters; in which situations to use specific punctuation marks, such as periods, apostrophes, semicolons, parentheses, hyphens, and brackets; where and when to use adverbs, conjunctions, prepositions, and interjections; examples of different kinds of sentences, such as simple, compound, declarative, and imperative; and how to check for complete sentences. You may need to look for definitions or examples for some of these words on the Internet. When you are done, save this guide to use any time you need to check your work.