ECCE
Writing Exercises and Practice Activities
March 2021
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Stages 2 and 3: Pre-Writing and Drafting
Lesson Plan and Exercises for Use with New Prompts (see Appendix 2)
General Suggestions:
1. Decide how many essay prompts you/your students will have time to practice.
We suggest aiming for four: two emails and two essays.
2. Half of the prompts (rst two) should be used without a timer. Give yourself/
students as much time as you/they need, and allow use of dictionaries. Focus
on producing clear, organized, and grammatically correct writing.
3. Get feedback from a teacher, tutor, or peer editor, and revise accordingly.
4. Focus on the feedback when writing the next essay, so you/the students
remember to pay attention to specic weaknesses or areas to improve.
5. When you have done the untimed essays, switch to timed essays without
the use of dictionaries or other reference aids, so you can practice under test
conditions. After each essay, get someone (teacher/ tutor/peer editor) to read
and comment if possible. Even practice test essays can be edited or revised
afterward for additional practice.
6. Teachers: You may want to separate each of the new prompts onto separate
pages and choose the topics/prompts for the students, especially after they
have completed the untimed writing and are ready for timed practice.
Specific Steps: Summary
1. Pre-writing/brainstorming
2. Organizing main ideas
3. Adding details
4. Drafting/putting paragraphs together
5. Editing
Details:
1. Brainstorming/Pre-Writing
• What is your true opinion about the topic? It will be easier to write about a
topic if you are writing about what you believe. Alternatively, you can practice
writing two essays for each topic, taking both sides of the issue.
• What vocabulary will you use for this topic? Brainstorm your active
vocabulary (avoid using a dictionary or other resource when you are
practicing under test conditions), and create a graphically organized list of
key content words you think you will need: verbs, nouns, and adjectives/
adverbs. Your vocabulary may be represented in an outline format, word
web, 2- or 3-column chart (e.g., showing word, denition, example,
synonyms), or any other format you nd useful.