A WRITING FOCUS

At Molasky Junior High School, all teachers implement both the writing process and the traits in the writing assignments given in their subject areas. Student writing is assessed based on the four analytic traits used in scoring the Nevada Writing Proficiency Examination. The school’s goal in writing is to prepare students for success when they are assessed by the State of Nevada in the eighth grade.

THE ANALYTIC WRITING TRAITS

IDEAS
Ideas are the heart of the message. They reflect the purpose, the theme, the primary content, the main point, or the main story line of the piece. When ideas are strong, the writing is rich with detail, original, thoughtful, highly focused, clear, and substantive. It doesn’t bore the reader with trivia, repetition, or unnecessary information.

ORGANIZATION
Organization is the internal structure of the piece. Organization holds the whole thing together.

VOICE
Writing that’s alive with voice is engaging, hard to put down; voiceless writing is a chore to read. Voice is the personal imprint of the writer on the page, and is different with each writer. Voice differs somewhat with purpose and audience.

CONVENTIONS
Almost anything a copy editor would deal with comes under the heading of conventions. This includes spelling, punctuation, grammar and usage, capitalization, and paragraph indentation. It does not include such things as handwriting or neatness. Though appearance is important, it is not the same thing as correctness, so it is important not to assess them together.

Components of the writing process:

1. Prewriting: The writer’s goal is to put ideas down on paper.
2. Drafting: The writer’s purpose is to develop the ideas into a first attempt at an organized piece.
3. Revising: The writer makes major changes in the organization of the piece, adds details, and clarifies ideas.
4. Editing: The writer makes sure that the piece is free of spelling, grammar, and usage mistakes.
5. Publishing: The writer prepares the piece to be shared with an audience.

Tips for Success in
IDEAS

1. Be an observer.
Notice the world around you. Learn to see what others miss. Find life interesting.

2. Write small.
Big topics are unwieldy, and lead to boring generalities.

3. Pick your own topics.
This is what real writers do. Be original.

4. Get rid of deadwood.
Separate the good details from the snoozers.

5. Don’t try to tell too much.
Think of writing as a kind of home movie on paper. Get to the point. Then, stop.

6. Don’t generalize.
Words like good, exciting, fun, special and nice say nothing. They’re worse than nothing because they’re annoying. They make your readers do all the work.

Tips for Success in
Organization

1. Spend time on a good lead.
It’s worth it. This is how you hook your reader and you get three seconds to do it – that’s it.

2. Have a center.
Like a hub of a wheel. That hub is like your focus. A main idea. A theme.

3. Gather information in chunks.
Put things together that go together. Group things. Get rid of “filler” – anything you don’t need.

4. Try to see a pattern.
Find a good match between the kind of writing you are doing and the way you structure your information.

5. Link ideas together.
Every time you write a sentence – every single time – you need to ask yourself, “What does this have to do with the main point I’m making (or story I’m telling)?” Nothing? Then, toss it.

6. End with flair.
Nothing squelches a good piece of writing like a weak ending. Good endings raise a question in the reader’s mind, show some new insight, leave the reader with a starting image or a surprise, or suggest a new story to come.

Tips for Success in
Conventions

1. Edit two ways.
Many people, even professional editors, find they catch many errors in hard copy they missed completely onscreen. So, edit onscreen first. Then, print out your work and look again.

2. Read from the bottom up.
When you’re looking for spelling errors, read from the bottom up. That way, you won’t focus on meaning and you won’t skip right over words that aren’t spelled right.

3. Make all rough drafts double spaced.
Give yourself room to read, room to work. Open up your text so you can put in new words, make arrows, move stuff around, make bold cross-outs.

4. Learn copy editor’s symbols.
Learn to use copy editor’s symbols in editing your hard copy text, and know what they mean. They’re a kind of editor’s shorthand, and they tell you the many possible kinds of editorial changes you can make.

5. Start in the middle.
Good editors go through copy more than once. And the second time around, start in the middle and give part 2 the attention it deserves.

6. Be a sleuth.
Like a good detective, you have to look-so to speak-under the carpet, behind the curtain, in the corners, in the cracks and crevices where the mistakes hide. Then-look again! Lots of errors are overlooked by hasty editors.

Tips for Success in
Voice

1. Be yourself.
Fingerprints on the page. Immediately identifiable. You – the one, the only.

2. Match voice to purpose.
A mystery story told round the campfire with long shadows flickering all around has one kind of voice. A business letter your firm sends out to recruit new clients has another. Know the sound you’re going for.

2. Think of your audience.
Who are they? Write right to them.

3. Care.
If you’re bored, why should your reader care? Write as if your topic were the most fascinating subject in the world. Maybe it is!

4. Know your topic.
Do your research. Knowledge puts confidence into your voice.

5. Think of everything as a letter.
Almost nothing – except perhaps poetry – can match the voice of a good letter. So, imagine you’re writing a letter even when you’re not. You’ll be surprised at the difference.