How Writers Grow by Cynthia Carbone Ward

Chapter 3 ‘Making Words Work’

While I was able to just dive into chapter 2 and let the ideas flow over me, I had to wade through chapter 3 with care, not because of Ward’s presentation of the material but because of the depth and breadth of the writing formats presented. This is really the meat and potatoes of writing; these are the skills our students will need and use for a lifetime—the personal letter, the persuasive essay, and technical writing.

Ward gives the reader simple, step-by-step instructions for each form of writing.

The Personal Letter (pages 45-46) What an easy way to bring back a dying art-let’s keep this direct, personal connection! Kids can write to each other about the books they are reading, thank their parents or grandparents for a gift they received, or maybe their teacher for a particularly super lesson.

The Persuasive Essay (pages 46-54) In this part of the chapter, Ward breaks the essay into its components and gives lots of examples to move from one step to the next. The revision methods are broken into meaning and style and self and peer. I think these will be particularly helpful for my students because they are easy to follow. This is one of the best ways I have seen for teaching the persuasive essay.

Technical Writing Unit (pages 54-67) Ward gives us a means to help students develop skills they can use in a way that is fun for them and for us.
a. How to work cooperatively with others to solve problems is demonstrated on pages 59-60 with Legos.
b. How to communicate clearly in writing and speaking is shown on pages 61-66 with a means to write a business letter.
c. How to follow directions is presented on pages 57-59 and on pages 60-61 with drawing house plans and creating a how to manual.

Again, Ward has put together some great ideas and presented them to the reader in a very user friendly way.