The Writer's Best Friend...

      I'm going to tell you about the Six Traits of Writing. It is a webloggers best friend I tell you. Let me give you a lesson of how to use each one.

Ideas and Content: What is your topic? Does it need improving? Try to make your paper clear and the writing alive.Do you have enough details in your paper? Did you include a good beginning, middle and end? Make sure the reader can understand what you're saying. And remember, include dialogue!!! I used to not have good Ideas and Content. Being in weblogs has helped though! I didn't make my writing alive, just ask my teachers. But I got encouraged to bump it up and now just look at me!

Organization: Think about how your topic starts. Are your details in order? Is your paper going to be easy to read? Try to make your paper in time order. Does the paper you made have a good beginning? Try to make all your details in correct sequence. I didn't organize ANYTHING when I was younger. The writing was bunched up in on big mess! When I heard about the Six Traits of Writing though, I got much better with organization.

Voice: Is you

r topic interesting to you? Read it out loud to yourself. Did you give your opinion? Say everything you wanted to. Which part did you like the most? Try to make your readers hear your voice just by reading your excellent writing! I used to be shy and I didn't use my voice much. In fact, I still am! For example, on May 2nd I have a play called Tall Tales and Heroes. I am so nervous. But I have got my lines studied and I know deep down inside there won't be a problem; I hope!!!

Word Choice: Try to make your writing flow! Use exciting words! Did you try and use vivid vocabulary? Use different or interesting words. For example, instead of using surprised use flabbergasted. If on a weblog, do you think they will leave a good comment. Don't be discouraged if they don't. The important thing is that you did your best! Word Choice hasn't been much of a problem to me. But I do sometimes find myself using overused words.

Sentence Fluency: Did you use a lot of sentences? Did you make them complete? Make your sentences correct. Make your sentence beginnings have big and different ideas. Does your story make sense? Make the story sound real. Complete what you are trying to say. With Sentence Fluency, you'll find that your writing will improve. I used to STINK at Sentence Fluency! In Mrs. Peters class I used to only write 1 sentence! But weblogging has fixed that problem.

Conventions: Make your words have spaces between them. Does your title go with the story? Make your punctuation show your sentence expressions. Do you have spelling errors? Make correct capitalization in your sentences. Let people understand your writing. Because you want to show them how good you can write! In weblogging I used to make my blogs one big paragraph. But Mrs. Meeler kept on telling me to make a beginning, middle and end and now, look!

      The Six Traits of writing have helped me out a lot. I have to say though, the one I had most trouble with was Conventions. Well good luck with your story. And don't forget the writer's best friend!

                         ~How do you think the six traits of writing will help you?~

Comments

[Bronwyn G]

Good luck with your play, Zachary!

It's been really great to see your confidence increasing as you have been working through Weblogs.

When I was an actress I had virtually no memory for lines and had to work through other cues.

How do you think the Traits of Writing have shone through your play? Because I think you have to adapt the traits to various forms of writing. The Traits you use in a story might be different to those in a play, and again from those in a newspaper article.

I like your self-evaluation and it's great to see how your writing has improved. And I would rather say "Show how well you can write" rather than "Show how good you can write".

Your writing is always alive and I look forward to seeing its growth and evolution over the coming months and years.

I hope you did well in the test. I always miss you all when you are not blogging!

[Mrs. Meeler]

Zachary - you did an awesome job explaining the six traits of writing! I agree that your writing has greatly improved and I know it has a lot to do with how you use the 6 traits in your writing now!

[Mom]

I liked this post very much, Zach. Your writing has improved very much over the year and I know you enjoy writing so much more now as a result. That's great. You have really inspired me to work more on my writing. I hope all of the kid's can continue writing throughout middle and high school. You all have a lot to say and I'll look forward to hearing more from all of you. Great job on your play! You definately have a talent for acting. I think everyone enjoyed seeing that side of you. Keep up the good work. We're all so proud of you. LYA.