Sign Up
School Account Sign Up
Contributor: Delaine Thomas. Lesson ID: 12090
Part of the writing process is writing, but you have to do some writing in order to begin writing. That is, you have to write about what to write. Never mind; just read this lesson and you'll get it!
"I write to give myself strength. I write to be the characters that I am not. I write to be all the things I am afraid of." - Joss Whedon
Wow! That's heavy! Why do you write? Do you only write because you have to, or do you have stories locked inside of you that are ready to come out? Get ready to unleash those stories!
We will explore ways to help you be able to express yourself through writing, whether you are a reluctant writer or someone who loves to write!
This lesson will help you to complete the second step of the writing process: writing your first draft.
If you missed or would like to review the earlier Related Lessons in our The Writing Process series, find them in the right-hand sidebar.
Before you get started, watch How to Write a Draft (3-5) by Ruth Syres. Take out a piece of paper and pencil. Copy the points on drafting that the presenter lists for you. You may pause the video if you need to in order to copy them:
Now, I will demonstrate a quick prewriting activity to get you started. My assignment is to write about "What is my favorite animal?" My favorite animal is a bear. So, using a graphic organizer (below), I wrote, “My favorite animal is a bear” in the middle circle.
The next thing I need to do is write reasons why that is my favorite animal in the four circles. I set my timer for five minutes and wrote down every reason I can think of why I like bears.
The next thing I did is number my reasons from the most-important reason that it is my favorite to the least-important reason. This will help me organize my work and help when I begin to write.
Now I am ready to write! I write “My favorite animal is a bear.” Then, I will make my reasons into sentences and place them in my paragraph in the order I numbered them.
For example, using a bear as my favorite animal, I filled out the graphic organizer with my reasons why I like bears. I numbered them in the order of their importance to me, and now I can write my paragraph or rough draft.
My favorite animal is a bear. I love bears because they are fun to watch. They hibernate in the winter. They also like to eat honey and berries. I think they are so pretty. That is why bears are my favorite animal.
It might not be an exciting paragraph or story, but it is a start. Remember, this is just a rough draft. When we get to the revision part of the writing process, we will make the paragraph a lot more exciting by adding more details and more descriptive words. This is to show you just how easy it is to write. You can always become a better writer; you just need to get started writing!
In the Got It? section, you will see if you got it by writing your own rough draft!
Supplies
Related Lessons
FAVORITE
Like