Why plan your writing?

There are many benefits to planning your writing. It helps you:

 Record your ideas

 Come up with new ideas
 Organise your thoughts
 Check that you have all the information you need

What do I need to think about when planning?

When planning your writing you need to think about why you are writing, what situation you
are in when writing and who you are writing to. Think of the three WWW's

W - Why: Purpose W - What: Context W - Who: Audience

How do I plan my writing?

There are many different methods you can use when planning your writing. One
tool you use all the time when planning is your head! For example, when sending
a text message you would first think it through in your head. You don't always
need to use a written plan.

Written methods of planning

There are many different ways you can plan your writing. There isn't a correct way to plan;
you choose the method that suits you or the situation.

Here are some examples of planning methods:

Diagrams
Diagrams are a visual way of planning and organising your writing.

 With spider diagrams and idea maps you can jot down lots of ideas in no particular
order to help you organise your thoughts.
 Flow charts are useful for planning writing that has to follow a step-by-step process,
like a recipe.

Lists
Lists are useful for jotting down and ordering all the different points you want to cover in
your writing.

 Bulleted lists are a common type of list used on the computer.

 If you put each idea on a sticky note you can then move the different points of your
writing around until you are happy with the order.

Writing frames
These are a guide you can use when planning your writing. They have frames, or headed
boxes, with titles to prompt what to write.. You can use frames as guidance for writing
documents which always include the same kind of information, such as a curriculum vitae (CV)
or a birthday invitation.

What do I do after I've planned my writing?

Once you've planned your writing you come on to the next stage; writing a draft.

A draft is a rough plan of your writing.

There are many benefits to writing a draft. It helps you to:

 Concentrate on the content, the writing, rather than the punctuation, spelling or
grammar.
 Check that the writing flows well.
Do you need to move any ideas around? Have you included everything you wanted to
say?
 Look at the layout of your writing.
Is it too far up the page? If writing a letter, do you have the address in the correct
place?

Once you've written a draft you can then go back and proofread your writing. This is the
time to check your spelling, punctuation etc.

letter?     magazine article?     report for work?

My idea: The discovery of America by Christopher Columbus (Cristobal Colon).

Why: I think it is interesting and a very important historical event.

What: (purpose of my writing) To explain why it was such an historical event to the class
and give some information about it.

Who: The audience are the lovely learners at City of Bristol College.

Methods of planning: I choose bulleted list:

 Landed in La Española (now Dominican Republic) on 12th October 1492

 Was born in Genoa, Italy, but travelled extensively as a teenager.
 The indigenous population was soon to be devastated by the Europeans.
 He was trying to find a westward passage to the Orient when he landed in the New
World.
 The journey lasted ten weeks.
 The Portuguese, French and English courts rejected to sponsor his enterprise.
 When he was a teenager he moved to Portugal and tried to gain royal patronage for a
westward voyage to the Orient or “his enterprise to the Indies”.
 He finally obtained sponsorship from King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella and he and his
three ships set sail in August 1492.
 Columbus dies in May 1506.

FINAL TEXT

Christopher Columbus was born in Genoa, Italy, and sailed extensively

as a teenager. When he was still very young, he settled in Portugal and
tried to gain royal patronage for a westward voyage to the Orient or “his
enterprise to the Indies”. Unfortunately, the Portuguese and also French
and English courts refused to sponsor his project.

He finally obtained sponsorship from King Ferdinand and Queen

Isabella of Spain and he and his three ships set sail in August 1492. The
journey lasted ten weeks, but instead finding a way to the Orient, he
landed in the New World on 12th October 1492.

The discovery of America and the invasion by Europeans afterwards

was devastating for the indigenous population. Christopher Columbus died in
May 1506.