Writing – Jeremy Harmer

This blog is based on my review of a chapter 18 in The Practice 0f English Language Teaching by Jeremy Harmer, 3rd Edition. The chapter discusses the language skill of writing in detail. 

The chapter begins with a discussion on handwriting and the importance of the same in the case of students whose ‘native-language orthography’ is different from English. He also remarks that the handwriting is a personal issue and striving for an uniform style is not desirable. The final outcome should be legible and readable. The advent of technology has greatly reduced the importance of the written texts, but still it is useful in academic and personal fields. 

Spelling is another area where special care should  be given to our students. They should be taught the differences in spelling as they occur in American and British English. Bad spellings always is ‘perceived as a lack of education or care’. Internet users are infamously famous for their habit of breaking the spelling rules.

The next section discusses the idea of reviewing. I am pretty excited about this section since there are two important sub sections which clearly gives the big picture about reviewing writing. The first one talks about the steps involved in reviewing.

1. Check Language Use ( Grammar, Vocabulary, Linkers).
2. Check Punctuation and Layout.
3. Check Your Spelling.
4. Check your writing for unnecessary repetition of words and/ or information.
5. Decide on the information for each paragraph, and the order the paragraphs should go in.
6. Note down various ideas.
7. Select the best ideas for inclusion.
8. Write a clean copy of the corrected version.
9. Write out a rough version. 

The correct order for these steps will be 6, 7, 5, 9, 1 , 2 , 3, 4, and finally 8

Jeremy Harmer also discusses the Arndt’s model based on the Rom White and Valarie Arndt idea of revision. According to them ‘writing is rewriting; that re-writing – seeing with new eyes – has a central role to play in the act of creating a text.  The same idea is shown in the picture below:

In the next section Jeremy Harmer discusses the different types of writing such as

1. Product writing: The written work is seen as the ultimate aim. Little attention is given to the steps involved in writing. This is recommended in situations where the instructor is hard-pressed for time.
2. Process writing: The above model can be taken as the best example of process writing. There is lots of brainstorming and idea collection that happens in this type of writing.
3. Genre writing: Kind of similar to process writing. The students are given pre-training in the genre that they are attempting to write. If the task is to write an obituary there are asked to read different types of obituaries that appeared in the media. They are asked to create a list of words that commonly appear in the genre.
4. Creative writing: This type of writing concentrates on the creative tasks such as poetry, novels and short stories.
5. Co-operative writing: This gives a chance for greater discussion and peer correction. ‘The generation of ideas is frequently more lively with two or more involved than it is when writers work on their own’. Writing in this case becomes a group activity.
6. Computer based writing: This type of writing is based on the word-processor software. The students feels relaxed and motivated because handwriting and spelling can never be bad when using a word processor. The students also gets a chance to send emails to each other in the class or to somebody who is away. This will happen under the strict supervision of the teacher. This email communication may also lead to the formation of mouse pals instead of pen pals.

Role of a teacher in a writing class

1. Motivator: Motivate the slow learners. To give the students some cues and hints to kick start their writing process.
2. Resource: The teacher should be quite resourceful by ‘supplying info0rmation and language’
3. Feedback provider: Teachers should respond in a positive and encouraging way to the content what the students have written.