Better Blogging

Your blogs are coming along wonderfully! I am very happy to see that you enjoy blogging. Now that you have had some practice posting and responding to comments, it's time to look at ways to make your blogs even better. One way to improve your writing is to use the Traits of Good Writing: Ideas, Organization, Voice, Word Choice, Sentence Fluency,and Conventions.

Using the Traits means asking yourself some questions about your writing. Let's focus on Conventions and Ideas. Here are some questions to ask:

Conventions

Did I proofread and edit my blog?

Did I make sure everything was spelled correctly? (Don't just rely on spell check!)

Did I use correct grammar, punctuation and capitalization?

Ideas

Did I write about one main idea?

Does my writing make sense ?

Did I write original ideas or perspectives?

Did I describe important details?

By asking these questions, and making changes to your writing before you post, you will write better blogs that are more interesting for people to read.

What do you think you do well when you write? What are some things you need to work on to make your writing better?

Comments

[Bronwyn G]

All good ideas to think of, Mrs Shaw. Structuring is really important when you are writing an essay or a factual article. So are original ideas that make the reader's eyes pop out and feel enriched when they read about the topic.

I don't know about one main idea. James Joyce wrote about many different ideas in his book Ulysses. Ulysses is a nice jumble of ideas. But many books and stories are more unified than that.

Remember how Dr Seuss wrote about one main idea? You can look at your favourite books. You might never know whether they use the traits of writing, but it's good practice.

[eshaw]

Bronwyn,

Thank you for your comment. Since my students' blogs are very short, it is important that their writing focuses on a main idea and doesn't jump all over the place. That is why I included "one main idea" in the list of questions to ask. Perhaps one day they will be able to write like James Joyce. That would truly be a wonderful thing!

[raul]

Thanks Ms.Shaw Because you help me with my writing.

[victor]

Ms.Shaw

I am good at spelling,and on writing about cars and am not good at writing on other things like animals.

[rocio]

I really think that I should
do better on my writing so more people can post to mine and if I do I think I`ll do bettter. Mrs.Shaw you helped me how to learn about webblogs and now that I`m doing webblogs I really like it.

[adriana]

Ms.Shaw I really did like your writing.I think it is so cool how you put in the questions. How you gave some advice. Oh Ms.Shaw I really enjoy being in weblogs.I think that I am beter at spelling than grammer. I am also good at making writing interesting.

[Bronwyn G]

I think you are too, Adriana, because you use original ideas and perspectives, as you showed in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre story. And you describe important details.

Rocio, I think that is a strength of your writing too, especially in your piece about Friendship.

Recently I found a rubric which everyone can use next time they have something to write. I think rubrics give you something to aim for:

http://www.nwrel.org/assessment/pdfRubrics/6plus1traits.PDF