One of the areas of our work as a team, is the import of teaching writing in a formal manner, which can often be a difficult concept for learners to grasp.
We use a range of teaching and learning techniques, such as using dummy reports with errors in them for learners to analyse in groups and pick out where the errors in form, content and language are, PP teaching pinpointing common areas of discrepancy and discussions about different types of register and tone.
Mark created a report with numerous deliberate errors in them, where groups of students try to identify problems in writing style, spelling, punctuation, syntax, proofreading and so on. The group task becomes a light-hearted but competitive and healthy intra-group task, but crucially, it is an active and relevant part of the lesson, as they will be writing formally on an individual basis in the weeks after.
Stephen created an excellent resource which outlines a great deal of common problems we encounter as educators. Feedback on this document has been universally positive from groups who have used it, and some screenshots of this and some writing for learners to self-critique are displayed below.
In the case of Stephen's well crafted short document, he raises the following specific points. This can also help when teaching reading analysis too.
His document is entitled 'Formal Writing Voice' and is broken down into the following areas for learners:
- Using formal writing voice
- Do not use first-person pronouns
- Avoid addressing readers as 'you'
- Avoid the use of contractions
- Avoid colloquialism and slang expressions
- Avoid abbreviated versions of words
- Conclusion
The document uses lots of interesting and helpful working examples for the students to refer to and is very user friendly indeed.
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