Writing Reflective Essay

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Learning to write When I attended elementary school, part of the curriculum was penmanship. There was a certain segment of instruction dedicated to penmanship rather than writing. We were given large sheets of oat colored paper with three parallel lines widely spaced. The alphabets were used to print and write in cursive using the midpoint, and upper lines for capital letters. The handwriting grades were based on neatness and readability. I do not recall specifically how I learned to write, but I do know that I was not taught in my earlier education the extensive writing process. I picked up more knowledge about writing as I progress through school. At the time I was in elementary school computers/windows was not the primary source of technology. …show more content…
Contrary to Tompkins (2012) theory that explains children can be writers at the same time they are learning to read if not sooner; when children are able to develop the interrelation of purpose, audience they can write about those experiences while learning standard spelling usage, capitalization, and punctuation. The writing process has five features with subsections lead the writer through the complete process of producing a paper ready for publishing. When I compare my writing preparation I find that most times it falls into prewriting = 1st draft, revising = 2nd draft, final round of revising for grammar/punctuation errors, and the paper is ready for submission. Tompkins (2012) outlines the constructive process of writing with the key features; prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing. Each key feature has instructional information that guide the writer through the writing process. Interconnected the writing process are strategies. The writing strategies are “deliberate thinking procedures writers use to solve problems that they encounter while writing” (Collins, 1998, p. vii). The writing strategies are broken down into 12 categories; elaborating, evaluating, formatting, generating, monitoring, narrowing, organizing, proofreading,

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