4. The Three Phases of Writing

All learned skills require practice. Learning to write takes time. It takes concentration. As a tutor, you will need to help your student become comfortable with the idea of writing and then the act of writing itself.

Writing as a process can be broken into three phases: pre-writing, writing, and post-writing or revising.

Pre-Writing: The First Phase

Pre-writing activities will help your student to get ready to perform the task of writing. Pre-writing consists of gathering ideas and thinking of the order in which they should appear so the reader can follow the thought process of the writer. In pre-writing tasks, tutors will help the learner to:

• Think about the subject and activate their prior knowledge just as with reading activities.
• Outline and organize ideas.
• Focus on the reader and the purpose for writing.

Required Assignment

Use a mind map or other graphic organizer to organize your thoughts for a topic of your choice. Now go to "comments" and share which graphic organizer you chose and why.

Optional Link (Click here to find out more about graphic organizers.)