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Chunk Your Writing

Tags

ELA: Writing All Ages Strategy

Skills

Organization Verbal Reasoning Abstract Reasoning

Chunk Your Writing

If your student feels overwhelmed or uncertain at starting a writing assignment

How To Apply It!

  1. While you might tend to write from beginning to end, breaking up a writing assignment into distinct chunks and starting in the middle, or wherever you have the most ideas, can be much more effective.
  2. Before you begin writing, create an outline or mind map of what you plan to write.
  3. Look at your outline. Which section do you find the most interesting? Have the most information or ideas for? Start there. You don't have to start from your introduction.
  4. Go back and write the other sections by connecting new ideas to what you previously wrote.
  5. Edit with an extra focus on making sure the ideas connect logically and in sequence if you wrote out of order.
  6. Refer to a list of transition words to help you.

Why It Works (the Science Of Learning)!

Most students never even think about writing "out of order" but often that really is the best approach. For many students, getting started is the most difficult part of a writing assignment, so starting with what you find easiest really might be the best way to begin. The ideas for the other sections might flow more easily.