Traditional approaches to essay writing usually involve teaching paragraph structure and, once learned, expanding the paragraph into an essay. Talk/Write takes a different approach on multiple levels: Students are taught how and why to tap conversational skills and prior experience when writing. To increase retention of ideas and ease the writing process, students are also taught use of a preliminary (and reduced) map, a graphic organizer, in Part 1 that is further developed in Part 2.

The general organization of the Talk/Write program follows the principles of ‘schema’ (cognitively connected concepts) development: Similar to a spider’s building of a web, the basic strands of the web are created (structure) in Part 1, and is further developed and expanded in detail in Part 2.

Part 2’s sequence of activities is shown below:

Steps to Creating a 6 Part Essay Structure

Use of an essay model to identify/label essay elements needed for persuasion.

Completion of a six part graphic organizer for the model essay.

Student recall of the graphic organizer and essay elements.

Adding Detail to Structure/Filling in the Map

Students learn criteria for assessing the adequacy of support for essay thesis and reasons.

Use criteria to evaluate support for essay thesis and reasons.

Use Talk/Write methods to
1. create adequate supporting information/examples
2. To plan, verbalize, and write essays.

Students learn and apply a scoring rubric for evaluating essay organization and development

Talk/Write Manual Part 2: Essay Development and Evaluation:
Includes:

Lesson 7: Identifying and Mapping Proof
Lesson 8-1: Giving Good Examples: Know Your Goal
Lesson 8-2: Giving Good Examples: Learning How
Lesson 8-3: Giving Good Examples: Talk/Writing Practice
Lesson 9: Using Talking to Write Essays
Lesson 10-1: Talking Out Essays
Lesson 10-2: Writing and Checking Essays
Lesson 11: Evaluating Essays
Lesson 12: Writing Test Practice
Lesson 13: Post Test: Writing the Persuasive Essay