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TECHNIQUES IN USING

CONTROLLED WRITING

WHAT IS CONTROLLED WRITING?


Raimes (1983) all the writing your students do for which
a great deal of the content and/or form is supplied.
Opposite to free writing; similar to guided writing (not the
same though).
Compared to free writing, more is given to the students:

an outline to complete
a paragraph to manipulate
a model to follow
a passage to continue, etc.

Silva (1990) still considers it as effective tool in helping


learner put down words on paper.

WHAT IS CONTROLLED WRITING?


A useful tool at all levels of composition teaching.
Controlled writing tasks give students focused practice in:
1. Getting words down on paper.
2. Concentrating on one or two problems at a time.

Students are spared the complexity that is free writing.


Can fit into a writing curriculum at any level of student ability in
these places:
1. Before free writing students practice a grammatical point or
syntactic structure within a text and not just as a sentence exercise.
2. After free writing when we determine what problems students
may face and assign a guided task to give them practice with the
problematic areas.

PROS OF CONTROLLED WRITING


A practical process of reinforcing grammar, vocabulary and syntax in context
(Raimes, 1983).
When the students write the passages, conventions of written English
(indentation, punctuation, connecting words, spelling etc.) are used.
Can be used with different levels.
Provide learners with ample writing practice using correct grammar forms
compared to free writing.
Allows learners to monitor their own progress within the parameters provided.
Can be prepared and corrected quickly reduces burden on the teacher.
Helps to systematically and gradually cover different teaching points
(Paulston, 1972).

FIVE FREQUENTLY
ASSIGNED TASKS
CONTROLLED COMPOSITION, QUESTION AND ANSWER, GUIDED COMPOSITION,
PARALLEL WRITING, & SENTENCE COMBINING

CONTROLLED COMPOSITION
Students are given a passage to work with; they do not have to be
concerned with things like content, organization, finding ideas and
forming sentences.
Usually writing down the passage and making a few specified
changes of a grammatical or structural nature.
Students make changes to the passage given to them, but will not
add anything of their own to it.
Example:
Rewrite a passage describing a man to one that describes two men
(singular/plural changes).
Rewrite a present tense passage in the past.
Rewrite direct speech into indirect speech.

CONTROLLED COMPOSITION
Example:
Everyday Alice wakes up at 6.
She prepares breakfast for the whole family before preparing herself to
go to work.
She drives to her workplace which is twenty minutes away.
She takes a coffee break at 10 a.m.
Instruction: Describe Alices routine last Monday, and change the report.
Start with Last Monday, Alice woke up at 6.
More examples can be found in Techniques in Teaching Writing by Ann Raimes (pg. 98 101)

QUESTION AND ANSWER


This format allows students a little more freedom in structuring
sentences.
Students are not given actual text they are going to write, but
rather are given a series of questions, the answers to which form
the text.
Carefully constructed questions will produce a coherent text.

QUESTION AND ANSWER


Example:

Instruction:

Abus daily morning routine

By answering the following questions with


complete sentences, write a paragraph
that describes Abus daily morning routine.

6:00 wake up

1. When does Abu wake up?

6:05 shower

2. What does he do first?

6:10 put on school uniform


6:20 eat breakfast

3. What does he do next?


4. What does he do then?
5. When does he eat his breakfast?

6:35: put on shoes

6. What does he do after breakfast?

6:40 say goodbye to Mom and walk


to school

7. What does he do before walking to


school?
More examples can be found in Techniques in Teaching Writing by Ann
Raimes (pg. 101 103)

GUIDED COMPOSITION
It is an extension of controlled composition.
Less controlled than the previous ones provides only some of the
content and form of the sentences students will use.
Finished products will be similar but not exactly alike.
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 writing.
Students can discuss, make notes, share findings and plan
strategies before they begin to write.

GUIDED COMPOSITION
Example:
Students are shown a picture. They are to write 3 paragraphs about the picture.
a. Begin by telling the reader that the picture shows__________. Then go on and
describe the ________ of the _________.
b. Start your second paragraph by saying something about the ________ in the
picture. Describe ________ in detail.
c. Start your third paragraph with Other than that, the ______________ is also
__________.. Go on and describe the rest of the characteristics of __________.
More examples can be found in Techniques in Teaching Writing by Ann Raimes (pg. 98 101)

SENTENCE COMBINING
It is the combining of base or kernel sentences into one longer
compound or complex sentences.
Researchers found that sentence-combining exercises improve
students sentence structure, length of sentence, and sentence variety.
A good way of introducing new language structures without the
complicated explanations and jargons.
Content is given does not provide students opportunity to formulate
ideas, but does provide plenty of practice with syntactic structures that
are more common in writing than in speech.
Gives students chance to use grammatical knowledge they have to
make choices about structures.

SENTENCE COMBINING
Example:
He didnt get to eat his breakfast this morning.
He woke up late this morning.
Combine the sentences to form a new sentences using the correct
conjunction(s).

More examples can be found in Techniques in Teaching Writing by Ann Raimes (pg. 107 109)

PARALLEL WRITING
The freest kind of controlled writing.
Students read and study a passage and then write their own
on a similar theme use as a guide the vocabulary, sentence
structure, cohesive device and the organization of the model
passage.
Thus, parallel writing can best be described as rewriting with
different basic information, which again is provided.

PARALLEL WRITING
Example:
Steve: Im leaving for swimming practice, Mom. See you later.
Mom: Okay. Please close the front gate behind you when you leave.
Rewrite the dialogue into a narrative.

More examples can be found in Techniques in Teaching Writing by Ann Raimes (pg. 109 113)

USING CONTROLLED WRITING


IN TANDEM WITH THE PROCESS
APPROACH

USING CONTROLLED WRITING IN


TANDEM WITH THE PROCESS
APPROACH

The best way of integrating controlled writing and the


process approach is to design the writing activity around
one step in the writing process.

Through this simple organizational routine we break the


writing process down into bite-sized chunks which can easily
be handled both by the teachers and the students.

USING CONTROLLED WRITING IN


TANDEM WITH THE PROCESS
APPROACH
Thus brainstorming and different types of brainstorming can
be turned into controlled writing activities by, for example,
inserting blanks into lists.
Students could have to revise or fix up thesis
statements/topic sentences.
Even outlining can easily be turned into a controlled writing
activity.

THE END
THANK YOU VERY MUCH

REFERENCES
Elturki, E. (2013). Controlled Writing: An Effective Traditional
Practice for Developing ELLs Composition.Humanising Language
Teaching,15(2).
Raimes, A. (2013).
Raimes. A.(1983). Techniques in Teaching Writing(Vol. 15). New
York, NY: Oxford University Press.

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