Help, I have to write!
Where do I start?
Writing is work
Writing is hard work, and to write well, you need to prepare your writing. You need to think about your writing and put in some effort.
The ideas in your writing will not just magically appear on your paper, you need to prepare. This is how you get good ideas.
So let’s get started. Here we go!
Blank Word-bakgrunn
Read the instructions carefully!
It is important to read the instructions well. What do they ask for? Look for verbs in the instruction. Perhaps you see words like describe, reflect or explore. This explains what kind of text you should write.
Perhaps the instructions say something about the style and structure. Do they tell you if you are going to write formally or informally? Another important thing is what type of text it should be: fairy tale, short story, letter, and so on.
What are the instructions? Who are you writing to? See some examples:
- Write a speech about homework for a young audience.
- Write a creative text about friendship for children.
- Write a persuasive letter to the editor about a route too dangerous for kids to take to school.
If you know who you are going to write to, you know what kind of language you should use. If you write for children, you should use easy words. However, if you are going to write a persuasive article for a newspaper debate, your text should be in a more advanced and formal language.
Now you have three steps that help you write the text:
- Content: what the paper will be about,
- Purpose: why you are writing the paper and to whom,
- Strutcture: how the text should be put together.
1 / 5
Skrivetrekanten på engelsk i Word-format
Get your brain started!
Do you know what to write about? If not, we are going to look at some tips that might help you on your way. Let’s start!
Use a pen and paper or a Word document on your computer. You are going to practice free writing. You set a timer for five minutes and then you should write down everything you can think of about your topic. Do not think of spelling or grammar, just get it down on paper.
Remember, there are no right or wrong answers. At this point, all you are trying to do is get your brain working!
After five minutes you stop and take a look at your writing and what you can use.
1 / 3
What type of text am I writing?
Read the instructions well, so you know what type of assignment you will write. You can write fiction or nonfiction:
- Fiction: narratives, short stories, and fairy tales
- Non-fiction (fact): newsletters, letters to the editor, news and debate/persuasive articles
Word-bakgrunn med engelske stilarter
FICTION
Drawing a mind map can be a helpful method. Draw a circle in the middle of a paper. Then you draw nine circles around the middle circle.
In these circles, you can write the following nine questions:
- Who are the characters?
- What is the story about?
- Where does the story begin?
- Where does the story take place?
- When is the story set (what time/year)?
- What is the big issue/problem in the story?
- How is the problem solved?
- What happens and why?
- How does the story end?
Just write keywords for your answers to these questions.
Now, look at the circles. This is the outline for your text. Find a partner to discuss your ideas with. Perhaps you will get some good feedback from your partner.
You are now ready to start writing. Just write what you want to include. Do not think too much about the language at this stage. Go back and read the instructions again, so that you know that you are on the right track.
Here are a few links for more writing tips and ideas:
- Adventure stories:
https://www.nownovel.com/blog/how-to-write-adventure-story/ - Narratives:
https://literacyideas.com/narrative-writing/ - Writing fiction:
https://writers.com/how-to-start-writing-fiction
1 / 4
Word-bakgrunn med sporsmal.
NON-FICTION
In a nonfiction text, you are going to convince or inform someone about something. You need to keep your writing clear and based on facts. It is useful to structure your text in what we call a five-paragraph essay. The first paragraph is the introduction, and the last is the conclusion. In the middle, you have three body parts (or more if you need). Think of it like a burger: the buns are the introduction and conclusion, and the layers between are the other paragraphs.
Word-bakgrunn med femavsnittsregelen
Keywords
Have a look at your free-writing from before. Can you find three keywords that could be useful for your task?
Here is one example of a free-writing paragraph. Keywords are in bold:
It is so scary having to walk to school because cars drive by really fast, and in the fall, it gets really dark and spooky. The days are a little lighter in the winter, but then you have to walk in the middle of the road because there is so much snow and there are snow berms everywhere. I don’t know what to write, there are a ton of cars where we walk to school, and almost all of my friends walk too. Some ride their bikes and have to either ride them on the road or where we walk. It’s hard to ride your bike to school because the sidewalks are so narrow, and we don’t have any bike lanes. I don’t know what to write, but I think that it sucks that some of us are scared of being run over on the way to school. Maybe that’s why there are so many that get rides. It’s also not that cool having to walk in all of the exhaust fumes. Also, even though a lot of people have electric cars, that’s a little scary too because they don’t make any noise.
Blank Word-bakgrunn
Topic sentences
A topic sentence is a sentence where you make a statement on what the paragraph is about. Make sentences from the highlighted words you already have. You have one topic sentence per paragraph.
From our example, they could look something like this:
- The school route is dark and has poor visibility.
- We need a bike lane.
- A lot of kids get rides to school because they are too scared to walk.
Supporting sentences
To support means to back something up. Supportive sentences back up the topic sentence with examples or explanations.
In the example below, you can see how you can write supportive sentences to the topic sentence (in bold).
The school route is dark and has poor visibility.
If you have ever walked along the school route to Russell school early in the morning, you have probably noticed that there isn’t much light. There are a lot of streetlights missing along the way, and it gets especially dark in the fall. That means that there can be some pretty dark mornings even at the beginning of the new school year. This is scary for both the kids walking to school and the cars driving by. Even though a lot of children use reflectors, there are also many who don’t. These roads are used by both pedestrians and cyclists, and things can quickly become dangerous. While the days get a little lighter when there is snow, that just makes the roads even more dangerous. The snowplows create a lot of high snow berms, and this means that children often have to walk in the middle of the road to get to school.
Now you can try to write four to five supporting sentences for each of your topic sentences.
Blank Word-bakgrunn
Starts and stops
Now we are going to look at the introduction and the conclusion. The introduction needs to grab your readers’ interest. The reader should want to continue reading the rest of the text. Explain why and what you are going to write and end with your thesis statement or key question like the one in the following example.
Introduction
Research shows that it is healthy for kids to walk to school. It is good for both body and soul to move around and get some fresh air before starting the important job of learning. While this is true, these researchers probably didn’t have to walk along the same school route I have to take to Russell school. This route is both scary and dangerous for school children as well as for the cars driving by. When is city hall going to do something about it? Isn’t it a bit ridiculous to wait until something serious happens before steps are taken to make sure that children are safe on the way to school?
Conclusions are a sum up of your key points. You can not add new information, only sum your text up. You should give an answer to your starting question.
Conclusion
As you can see, there are several good reasons why children should walk to school. It is good for both body and soul. At the same time, it isn’t something that you should have to risk your life for. If the school route isn’t safe, then it isn’t reasonable to let children walk to school. To ensure that children get the best start possible to their day, it is essential for city hall to make the route safe for pedestrians and cars. For the kids who attend Russell school, this means improving the lighting and sidewalks along the regular school route. Everyone agrees that children need to be able to walk to school safely, now it is up to city hall to actually do something about it!
Your text is done. It could be a good thing to let a classmate read through your text before you turn it in.
Remember to check spelling and punctuation, since the computer’s spell check does not always find the errors. Use the help you have, like sentence starters, planning tools, and a thesaurus.
1 / 5
All done!
Writing can be difficult, but if you prepare, it will be easier. Writing good texts takes time, but it gets easier with practice. Have fun with your writing, and let your voice be heard!
Kul jente med laptop i fanget jubler over å egen innsats
Kilder:
- NTNU | Skrivesenteret (10.11.2021):
http://skrivesenteret.no/
- Intertekst (10.11.2021):
https://intertekst.portfolio.no/
- Norsksidene (10.11.2021):
https://norsksidene.no/web/
Bilde- og videorettigheter:
-
-
Skolerom
-
Skolerom
-
Skolerom
-
Getty Images
-
Skolerom
-
Skolerom / Getty Images
-
Skolerom
-
Skolerom
-
Getty Images
-
Skolerom
-
Skolerom
-
Getty Images
-
