Institut Pendidikan Guru Kampus Batu Lintang

Teaching Writing Skills

in the Primary ESL Classroom
(TSL 3073)

Techniques in
Teaching Writing
Prepared by:
Chai Kar Ni
Ng Pui Mun
Ting Ming Chuo

Techniques in Using
Controlled Writing

What is Controlled Writing?

The writing your students do for
which a great deal of the content
and form is supplied for them.
Opposite of free writing because a
model is given to the students to
follow.

Advantages
For students:
Provide students with focused
practice in getting words down on
paper and in concentrating on one
or two problems at a time.

For teachers:
It is easier to mark and much less
time-consuming.

5 Types of Controlled Writing

1. Controlled Composition
2. Question and Answer
3. Guided Composition
4. Sentence Combining
5. Parallel Writing

Controlled Composition
When students write a controlled
composition exercise, they are given a
passage to work with.
Focuses the students attention on
specific features of the written
language.
Good method of reinforcing grammar,
vocabulary and syntax in context.

 Examples:
Rewrite a passage describing a
man to tell the reader about two
men, making only the necessary
singular/plural changes.
Rewrite a present tense passage
in the past or a passage of direct
speech in indirect speech.

Question and Answer

Students are not given the actual
text that they will write; rather, they
are given a series of questions,
the answers to which form a
text.
Uses a question and answer format
allows
students
a
little
more
freedom in structuring sentences.

 Example:
Students write a paragraph that describes
the daily routine of James by answering
the
following
questions
in
complete
sentences:
When does James get up?
What does he do first?
What does he do next?
What does he do then?
When does he go to work?
Is the beginning of his day leisurely or very busy?

Guided Composition
It is an extension of controlled
composition but it is less controlled
that controlled composition.
It gives students some but not all of
the content and form of the sentences
they will use.
The students finished products will
be similar but not exactly alike.

 Example:
Students are given a first sentence, a
last sentence, an outline to fill out, a
series of questions to respond to or
information to include in their piece of
writing.

Students are able to discuss, make

notes, share findings and plan
strategies together before they
begin to write.

Sentence Combining
Combining simple sentences into longer
compound or complex sentences.
Improves
the
students
sentences
structure, length of sentence and
sentence variety.
Introducing new language structures
without going into complicated explanations
and employing specialized terminology.

 Example:
The train was late.
Students could discover these
possibilities for combination:
Since the train was late, she
As the train was late, she

Parallel Writing
Freest kind of controlled writing.
Students read and study a passage
and then write their own on a similar
theme, using as a guide the
vocabulary,
sentence
structure,
cohesive devices and organization of
the model passage.

 Example:
Students listen or read a
textbook dialog a few times. Then,
they write down what they heard
or read in a narrative form and
not the dialog form.
Sue said firmly that she was leaving.
(Sue: Im leaving.)

Reference
Raimes, A. (1983). Techniques in
teaching writing. New York: Library of
Congress Cataloging in Publication
Data.