Informal Writing

Concerns about correct spelling, grammar, and other mechanics of writing often plague both tutors and learners when they're working on writing. There's no cut and dried answer to how much to focus on these aspects of writing because the purpose of the writing and the intended reader determine how much emphasis to place on the mechanics in any piece of writing. In most cases though, it's more important to focus on your learner's message and how they can communicate the meaning of what they write more effectively. In writing that is not for publication or is for your learner’s own use, spelling always takes a back seat to the content. When your learner is writing in a journal, writing for pleasure or for personal reasons such as to-do lists, messages to family members or friends or most tutoring assignments, focus mainly on what your learner has to say and less on spelling. The most important thing to remember with this kind of writing is for your learner’s ideas to get onto the page. The majority of your time should be spent on getting words and ideas on to paper/screen. Only after that should spelling become the focus of your time. Please view this writing graphic to see where spelling fits into the writing process. One strategy you can use to encourage your learner to write without worrying about spelling is Invented Spelling.

 

 

 

Formal Writing

When your learner needs to write more formally or accurately or for a reader such as a boss or a child’s teacher, spelling becomes more of a priority. In this case, it’s important for your learner’s writing to be as polished as possible, so you as the tutor will want to provide more guidance and feedback on spelling after you've spent time helping your learner craft his/her message. While you'll most likely help your learner correct every spelling error in this type of writing, you’ll want to focus only on the most important errors when you use the piece to help your learner remember how to spell difficult words. If you try to address every spelling error in every piece of writing in your lessons, it will be overwhelming and frustrating for both you and your learner.

 

Spelling and Explicit Instruction

Writing experts recommend the teaching strategy called explicit instrcution to teach spelling and all other aspects of writing. In explicit instruction, you're following these steps:

• Clearly and succinctly explain and discuss an idea.
• Invite questions about it.
• Accurately demonstrate how a rule or strategy relating to that idea works.
• Provide many opportunities for guided and independent practice.

 

Explicit instruction works well for all learners, but especially those with learning disabilities. Explicit instruction addresses the needs of learners with learning disabilities to be given numerous opportunities to practice new skills and very clear, detailed explanations when learning spelling rules and strategies.

 

Explicit instruction is best illustrated by a model of teaching and learning called

I Do, We Do, You Do.

 

Click here to read a short summary of the I Do, We Do, You Do model of explicit instruction. 

Click here to watch a brief video of a teacher explaining explicit instruction using the I Do, We Do, You Do model. 

Click here to see an example of a teacher’s guide for how to teach intermediate level adult learners spelling and decoding. 

Click here to see an example of lesson plans for how to teach intermediate level adult learners spelling and decoding. 

Click here to see a learner activity book that teaches intermediate level adult learners spelling and decoding.

 

Many learners get hung up on correct spelling when they’re writing. They feel like they have to spell every word correctly every time they write. This concern can block the flow of their ideas and lead to frustration and a reluctance to continue to try to write.
One recommended strategy to overcome this obstacle is to encourage your learner to use “invented spelling” or phonetic spelling when writing.
Invented spelling is when a writer spells unfamiliar words by guessing the correct spelling based on his/her knowledge of phonics or how to sound words out.
Some learners can be reluctant to use invented spelling because they've been taught that every word a writer writes must be spelled correctly. But when they see how they can express their ideas more easily and freely when they’re not worrying about spelling, most learners become enthusiastic invented spellers.

ESL Notes: The idea is to keep the flow of ideas moving and to worry about correct spelling only once the learner’s ideas are on the page. To keep the ideas flowing, the learner can use a word in his/her first language and go back to change it later, when editing.

 

Once your learner has successfully recorded his/her ideas in writing, you can go back and look at the words that were troublesome and discuss their correct spelling. If your learner has misspelled many words, you’ll want to focus only on those that are the most important for him/her to know. Examples of words to focus on for instruction are words your learner uses often or words s/he spells incorrectly repeatedly.

Be sure to ask your learner which spelling words s/he thinks are the most important to learn. You can then design lessons that give your learner ample opportunities to practice spelling those words when writing for real life purposes relevant to your learner’s interests and goals.

 

If your learner has a real life purpose for writing and limited time in which to do it, such as responding to his/her child’s teacher or sending an email to a supervisor, ask if s/he would like help correcting all of the misspelled or invented spelling words without taking the time to plan lessons around them. Meeting your learner's immediate needs is always the most important thing to focus on. If your learner would like to, you can always revisit the words you’ve simply corrected for him/her when you’re working on high stakes, time sensitive texts.

 

Many learners want to improve their spelling. They'd like to feel more confident in their writing because they’re more confident about their spelling. They want to increase the number of words in their “spelling banks”. You can help your learner improve his/her spelling by memorizing spelling rules and sight words.

Spelling Rules

English has many spelling rules and it can be helpful to review the ones that govern the most common spelling patterns of words used by your learner. It’s also good for your learner to know that there are many exceptions to English spelling rules.

Learning spelling rules in isolation and out of context is not recommended. You can help your learner remember spelling rules by relating them to the words your learner uses in the context of real life writing tasks, like email messages or grocery lists.

Click here to go to a website that lists helpful spelling rules.

Click here to see a list of common words that sound alike and are often misspelled and misused as a result.

 

Another tried and true strategy that works for many learners is to memorize the spelling of sight words (words that are not phonetic and must be learned as a unit and high frequency words that should be recognized easily and immediately as a unit) and word families and syllables that combine to make words. Making and reviewing flash cards in a fun way can be an effective method for your learner to memorize the spelling of the words s/he wants to add to his/her spelling bank. If your learner learns best by touching or moving, there are some excellent multisensory techniques you can use to memorize spelling words.

 

There are many fun ways you and your learner can practice spelling so your learner can memorize spelling rules and words. You can use board games like Scrabble, Upwords or Boggle. There are lots of resources online you can also explore. Here are just a few:

Flippity provides a template for creating spelling practice for learners. Tutors use Google Spreadsheets to create activities in which learners hear a word read aloud and then have to type it correctly into a quiz form. Learners receive immediate feedback on their practice attempts.

Quizlet is a free app that tutors can use to create simple learning tools to help learners memorize spelling words using custom-made flashcards, games and other fun strategies learners can use outside of tutoring sessions.

Discovery School's Puzzlemakeris a free website with which tutors can create and print customized word search and crossword puzzles using learners’ own spelling word lists.

LANTERNFISHis a free website that has many types of printable crosswords and word searches. Topics include words related to holidays, urban life, animals, the environment, shopping, and more.

Many spelling resources have been developed specifically for children. Often, they work equally well for adults. However, sometimes the resources are too childish for adult learners. When evaluating printed and online resources to use to work on spelling, always make sure the images and messages are appropriate for your learner.

 

If your learner is typing the text s/he is writing, spell check can be a helpful tool to catch and correct spelling errors. You’ll want to be sure to explain and demonstrate how spell check works and to warn your learner about its limitations, especially with words that sound the same but are spelled differently, such as their, there and they’re. Dictionaries You’ll also want to teach your learner how printed and online dictionaries and spelling dictionaries can be used to find the correct spellings of words. Many learners don’t know how to use a dictionary, so it’s always a good idea to check to see if you need to have a lesson on that. Be sure to point out that it can be difficult to find words in a dictionary if you don’t know how to spell them! It can also be challenging to find the word your learner is looking for on a dense page of a printed dictionary. And it can be difficult to choose which word is the word your learner wants to use when an online dictionary predicts a long list of possible words if your learner misspells a word in the search box.

 

ESL Notes: Picture dictionaries, bilingual dictionaries, and electronic and web-based translators like Google Translate (https://translate.google.com) are very helpful when you’re working with English language learners. They can help learners not only with spelling but also with vocabulary. It’s important that your English language learner understands the meaning of a word before s/he tries to memorize how to spell it. In fact, for English language learners, the most important focus for learning is always on increasing their knowledge of word meanings. Spelling words correctly is always secondary to understanding them.

 

Teaching grammar can be a daunting task for many tutors when they’re helping their learners with writing. While most of us certainly speak and write using correct grammar, it can be challenging to explain the hows and whys of English grammar to others. Many of us have forgotten or may never have learned English grammar rules. So it can be intimidating to try to explain them to a learner, especially if the learner is an English language learner.

Many native English-speaking learners know if something doesn’t sound or look right because of their informal, everyday experience with English grammar. But English language learners don’t have that same frame of reference to guide them and will need more help with grammar. Click here to watch two experiences tutor trainers discuss the role of grammar in teaching writing.

 

The purpose of your learner’s writing and his/her intended audience will guide you as you decide how much emphasis to place on grammar. In writing that is not for publication or is for the learner’s own use, grammar is less important than the message your learner wants to convey. When a learner is writing in a journal, writing for pleasure or for personal reasons such as to do lists, messages to family members or friends or most tutoring assignments, focus mainly on what the learner has to say and less on punctuation, sentence structure and grammar rules such as correct subject/verb agreement. The most important thing to remember with this kind of writing is for the learner to communicate his/her message in writing. A few grammar errors shouldn’t take the focus away from the meaning behind the learner’s writing.

When a learner needs to write more formally or for a reader such as a boss or a child’s teacher, grammar becomes more important. In this case, it’s important for the learner’s writing to be as polished as possible, so you as the tutor will want to provide more guidance and feedback on grammar. While you will most likely help your learner correct every error in this type of writing, you’ll want to focus only on the most important errors when you use the piece to teach specific grammar points. If you try to address every grammar error in every piece of writing in your lessons, it will be overwhelming and frustrating for both you and your learner.

Click here to visit a well-respected website that provides guidance for how best to teach a variety of useful grammar points.

Click here to go to a website that showcases recommended grammar books that make grammar explanations accessible at different levels. These can be helpful if you need to brush up on your own knowledge of grammar rules so you can explain them to your learner. Many adult basic education and literacy programs have these texts in their libraries. If yours doesn’t, you can request that staff purchase them as helpful reference materials for tutors.

 

Many learners get stuck in their writing because they’re afraid their grammar isn’t perfect. You may be tempted to address your learner’s grammar concerns by teaching grammar rules as you learned them in school. We now know that teaching grammar rules in isolation and out of the context of reading and writing does not help learners improve their writing.

Grammar is best taught and learned when you’re reading texts and writing pieces that are relevant to your learner’s interests and goals, rather than by asking your learner to complete grammar worksheets and textbook exercises that may not hold his/her interest. When your learner is repeatedly exposed to proper grammatical structures when reading examples of good writing, s/he becomes familiar with how to use grammar correctly in a natural and meaningful way. When you provide feedback on your learner’s grammar in his/her own writing, s/he learns about correct grammar in an authentic way as it is embedded in the content and structure of a text, rather than in isolation and out of the context of real life reading and writing activities.

Click here to watch an ESL teacher teaching her learners a grammar lesson on the simple past verb tense versus the present perfect verb tense using a contextualized or real life approach using examples from her own life.

Click here to see an actual example of one learner’s first draft of a story written on February 17. You will see that before pointing out any grammar or spelling errors, the learner’s tutor simply encouraged the learner to provide more details by asking questions about the story the learner was writing. The learner then added more details during their tutorials on February 21 and March 8.

After adding more details, the learner revised and typed up a second draft of his story. Click here to see the tutor’s feedback on the learner’s grammar errors in the second draft.

Click here to see the third draft of the story. Notice which errors have been corrected and which remain.

Click here to see the learner’s final, edited draft of his story. The tutor helped the learner correct all of the writing’s grammar and spelling errors for inclusion in From Town to Town, Words Get Around, a publication funded by the Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Fund in 1996.

 

It’s only natural that beginning writers will make a wide variety of mistakes. These mistakes should be considered as opportunities for learning but should not be addressed all at once. Since one piece of writing usually goes through multiple drafts and writing should be an integral part of your tutoring sessions, your learner will have ample opportunities to learn to correct the mistakes s/he is making.

One general rule for helping your learner understand correct grammar, spelling, and punctuation rules is to use your learner’s pieces of writing to teach those rules. Having your learner practice these skills on worksheets or in workbooks is not an effective way for your learner to improve his/her writing.

Some things to keep in mind when discussing a piece of writing with your learner:

• Focus on the positive by commenting on things your learner has done well.
• Talk more about what your learner said in the writing than about the errors.
• Talk about the piece of writing as a whole as well as discussing specific areas.

A suggested plan for helping your learner improve his/her writing:

• Pick only one or two things to work on at a time. For example, focus on a basic error like capitalization or correct use of a period, or an error that your learner makes frequently. Correcting every error can overwhelm your learner and turn writing into a task to be dreaded. 


• Once you identify an error, explain the rule for the correction and how it will help your learner’s writing. 


• Correct the error in one or two places as a model for your learner. Have your learner look for other places in his/her writing where the correction needs to be made. 


• Have your learner write a second draft incorporating the corrections. 


• When your learner improves, move on to one or two other errors s/he is making.

 

Guided Self-Correction is an error correction system that not only identifies errors that your learner has made in his/her piece of writing, but helps your learner find and correct those errors on his/her own. First, you identify the error. Then you follow a list of steps to explain how to correct the error. In this example, the error is capitalization.

• ​Deliver short (5–15 minutes) lessons on the area that needs improvement. In this example, the mini lesson would be on capitalization. Delivering several short grammar lessons is better than fewer long ones. Some tips for delivering a mini lesson are:
  • Give your learner a brief, clear explanation of the grammar or punctuation rule. Give your learner any tips you think would be helpful.
  
  
  • Show your learner a few examples, then help your learner correct the error in his/her piece of writing. If the error occurs more than once, encourage your learner to try to correct some of them without your help.
  
  
  • You may need to deliver the same mini-lesson more than once until your learner remembers the rule.
• In this short video of a mini lesson on capitalization, the teacher tells her learners to practice with a worksheet. Your learner would practice with his/her own piece of writing.


• When your learner understands the correct use of capital letters, introduce the first "Correction Code". Tell your learner that you will note mistakes with capital letters by using a "C" in the margin of the paper on the line where the mistake is.


• When discussing your learner’s writing, one part of your feedback will be to put a "C" in the margin of the paper every time there is a mistake in how a capital letter is used or not used. If two errors of the same type occur on the same line, note two "Cs" on that line.


• Your learner then must find the capital letter mistakes and fix them. You can make a game out of this so it’s a fun activity rather than one that seems like a critique of your learner’s writing.


• After your learner has corrected the errors, you can check to see how s/he did.


• If your learner has found and fixed the errors correctly, s/he is showing progress. Praise lavishly!


• If your learner is unable to find and fix the mistake(s), you may need to have a short discussion with him/her, explaining the error. You may need to explain how to use capital letters again during this discussion. 

To read more about Guided Self-Correction, follow the link in the Resource Section.

Ivy, S. and LeBuffe, J. (2018). Guided Self-Correction: A Positive, Focused Feedback System That Improves Writing. Learning to Write, Writing to Learn, 13:16

 

As we work with our learners to help them become better writers, we want them to write more than just one or two paragraphs and to add details and descriptions to what they have written. Helping your learner plan what s/he is going to write before s/he actually writes it is a good way to accomplish this. Graphic organizers and discussion are two great tools to use with your learner as s/he plans his/her writing.

Discussion
Talking with your learner about what s/he is going to write about before s/he starts writing can help your learner think of more details for his/her piece of writing. Asking questions like “Who else was there?”, “How did you feel about that?”, “What did it look like?”, and “What happened next?” can help your learner write a longer piece with more details. As your learner tells you what s/he is going to write about and answers your questions, you can take notes for your learner to refer back to as s/he writes.

Graphic Organizers
A great way to help guide the discussion and capture your learner’s ideas is to use a graphic organizer. A graphic organizer is a tool your learner can use to organize his/her ideas before s/he begins writing and to remind your learner of what s/he wants to include in his/her piece of writing. It’s like a roadmap your learner can follow as s/he writes. There are different types of graphic organizers for different types of writing. A graphic organizer your learner can use for narrative writing, which is a common type of writing for beginning writers, can be found by clicking here. You can print out the graphic organizer and you and your learner can fill it out together. Once your learner becomes familiar with graphic organizers, s/he can fill them out independently. To see a graphic organizer that has been filled out, click here.  For more types of graphic organizers, see the resource section.

 

Writing Conferences

As your learner uses his/her graphic organizer and/or notes to write, you can begin to give feedback to your learner about his/her piece of writing. It’s important to offer feedback at different times as s/he is writing rather than waiting until s/he has finished, especially if your learner is writing several paragraphs. These informal chats about your learner’s writing are sometimes called writing conferences. Asking questions like “How’s it going?” and “Tell me more about X.” can help your learner write longer and more detailed pieces of writing. For more questions you can ask your learner about his/her writing, see the resource section below.
 
In addition to asking questions about your learner’s writing, giving your learner specific feedback about his/her piece of writing is also helpful. Specific feedback means going beyond saying “Nice work.” to giving positive feedback about something specific in your learner’s piece of writing. For example, you might say “I really like the way you described that person.” or “I like the way you started your story. It makes me want to read more.” By giving feedback about specific things in your learner’s writing, it lets your learner know what s/he has done well.

 

Some beginning writers tend to write short, simple sentences while others write sentences that never seem to end. This makes their writing sound awkward when it’s read aloud instead of like regular speech. There are some ways to help your learner write better sentences so his/her writing sounds smoother. 
 
For sentences that are too short or too long:

Having your learner read his/her piece out loud to you or reading the piece out loud to your learner might help your learner hear how his/her piece of writing sounds. You and your learner might discuss a model of good writing and talk about the similarities and differences in sentence length between the model and your learner’s writing. Encouraging your learner to write the same way s/he talks may also help. Modeling how to write that way for your learner will give him/her an idea of how to write the way s/he speaks. Talking to your learner about what makes a good sentence can also be helpful.

 

For sentences that are too short:

A proven way to help your learner write longer sentences is to teach him/her how to put those sentences together. This is called “sentence combining” and it’s a strategy that can help your learner improve his/her writing. 
 
There are different ways to combine sentences. For example, if your learner wrote the following two sentences: I have a dog. His name is Buster. You could show your learner how to combine those sentences into a longer sentence: I have a dog named Buster.
 
Here’s another more sophisticated example: The dress I bought for the party is pretty. It’s blue with flowers on it. can be combined this way: I bought a pretty, blue dress with flowers on it for the party.
 
And one more example that shows that there are different ways to combine sentences: The weather was nice. I went outside for a walk. can be combined to read The weather was nice so I went outside for a walk. or I went outside for a walk because the weather was nice.
 

For sentences that are too long:

As mentioned before, have your learner read the piece of writing out loud and notice if s/he naturally pauses while s/he is reading the run-on sentence. If s/he does, you can work with him/her to put periods or commas at those pauses. If not, you may need to read the piece of writing to your learner and have him/her listen for the pauses that you put in the sentences. You and your learner can then make the corrections together. 

This run-on sentence, My sister was taller than me when we were young now I am the tallest
I’m glad. can be rewritten this way: My sister was taller than me when we were young. Now I am the tallest and I’m glad.
 
Here’s another example: Blue is my favorite color it is the color of the sky and the sea and
it reminds me of my favorite insect which is the butterfly. This run-on sentence can be rewritten this way: Blue is my favorite color because it is the color of the sky and the sea. It also reminds me of my favorite insect, the butterfly.

 

Most struggling or new writers aren’t avid readers and haven’t been exposed to many different kinds of writing. They may not know that writers use different kinds of writing for different purposes. They may not realize that different kinds of writing vary in tone and style, depending on the purpose of the writing and the intended audience. They may need to learn that there are conventions in writing that good writers follow.

Research tells us that there is a very strong connection between reading and writing skills. They reinforce each other so the more reading your learner does, especially of a wide variety of well-written texts, the more s/he can experience effective writing and use it as a model for his/her own writing. The more s/he reads and studies different kinds of writing, the more your learner will come to appreciate a great turn of phrase, well-constructed sentences with flawless grammar and spelling, clear and concise prose and words that convey the writer’s meaning precisely and effectively. This won’t be as easy for English language learners as it is for native English speakers, but it’s still a valuable thing to do.

 

As you and your learner read examples of different kinds of writing, you can compare and analyze them. You can discuss the author’s style, tone, purpose and intended audience. You can talk about what makes the writing effective or compelling. You can also encourage your learner to critique different kinds of writing. When your learner thinks deeply about a particular text, its strengths and weaknesses, its style and tone, who it was written for and why it was written, the mystery of writing peels away and writing becomes less intimidating and more like something your learner can do, too!  

It’s always fun to introduce your learner to lots of different types of writing and to encourage him/her to try his/her hand at writing in that same style and tone and for that same purpose and audience. For example, you might read a persuasive essay on a topic your learner feels strongly about and then ask your learner to imitate the way the essay was written while writing about a different subject that your learner is also passionate about.

Click here to see a sample persuasive essay.

You may read an autobiography of someone your learner admires and then encourage your learner to write his/her own autobiography. If you feel comfortable with your own writing, you can provide other examples of good writing by writing along with your learner during this practice and sharing what you’ve written.

Click here to watch a video of a tutor and learner analyzing different models’ use of Purpose/Audience/Voice/Message to help create a new piece of writing.

Click here  to watch a video of a tutor and learner analyzing and adapting two models of emails to a teacher.

 

Exploring and practicing different kinds of writing will help build your learner’s writing skills and ensure that s/he gains a broad understanding of the rich opportunities available to writers. While this kind of broad knowledge of writing is always beneficial, be sure to ask your learner what kind of writing will be the most useful in his/her everyday life and then concentrate on practicing reading and writing those kinds of texts. It may be interesting for your learner to read a biography and then write one of his/her own about a friend or family member or well-known figure, but it may be more useful for your learner to learn how to write a cover letter and resume after looking at excellent examples that others have written.

Does your learner need to write for work? Find examples of memos, reports and other work-related texts to use as models for your learner’s own writing. Does s/he need to learn how to write an essay so s/he can obtain a high school equivalency diploma or GED? Discuss what makes essays different from other kinds of texts, read and analyze some relevant examples and then practice writing in this unique style. Does your learner want to learn how to write emails, notes or letters to friends and family? Share and discuss real-life examples and then try out writing them for genuine purposes.

For lower level English language learners you might want to provide examples of writing that your learner might need to write in their daily life, like an email to a supervisor, a note to a child’s teacher or a short paragraph for a tutoring session or class.

Click here to see a note to a child’s teacher that a tutor wrote as an example for her English language learner.

Click here to see an example of a short paragraph a tutor wrote in a tutoring session after a discussion, as an example for her English language learner.

Click here to see an example of a short note an English language learner wrote to his tutor after they studied some examples of absence excuses.

Click here to see information about how to help your learner write a thank you note and lots of different examples of thank you notes for different occasions.

Click here to see a sample letter from a parent to a teacher requesting a parent/teacher conference.

Click here to see information about how to help your learner write an email message.

Click here to see a sample email message to use as a model.

Click here to see information about how to help your learner write a personal letter.

Click here to see a sample personal letter to use as a model.

Click here to visit a website that provides information and examples of many other kinds of writing including resumes, cover letters, business letters, memos and essays for exams.

Click here to see a GED essay sample response to use as a model.