ESOL Wt/L1.1a Apply genre-specific planning strategies as appropriate

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Adult ESOL>Writing>Text Focus>Writing Composition>WtL1.1 Plan and draft writing

Wt/L1.1a: Apply genre-specific planning strategies as appropriate

• Take account of the purpose, context, audience and outcome of a piece of writing when planning it, e.g. college assignments, letters to a local councillor, postcards, e-mails to friends and colleagues, an accident report at work
• Know and select from a range of techniques for planning writing, e.g. brainstorm, notes, lists, diagrams, flow charts, using own language and/or English
• Decide when planning and drafting are appropriate, and when it is necessary to write something without much planning 
• Draft and redraft where appropriate, and produce final legible version of text, word-processed or handwritten; understanding when material is ready for presentation

Related ESOL link: Wt/L1.1b Make notes to aid planning

Related Adult Literacy link: Wt/L1.1 Plan and draft writing

Examples of application and level

• Plan and draft the type of formal and informal texts they want to write, e.g. college assignments, letters, postcards and notes to friends and colleagues

Sample activities

• In small groups, learners plan an assignment on the languages spoken by learners in the ESOL classes at the college. Planning will involve generating ideas through discussion; researching and making/taking notes; writing and evaluating a mini-survey and presenting the results of the survey to others. Learners discuss the purpose, audience and outcome of the assignment before allocating each other tasks.
• Learners discuss how they usually plan writing (in any language) and look at examples of different planning techniques for the same task (i.e. notes, lists, diagrams, flow charts). Learners consider the role of other languages in planning.
• To decide what techniques work for them, learners experiment with and practise a range of planning techniques. They discuss which techniques they prefer, and why.
• Learners identify when planning and drafting are appropriate and when it is necessary to write something straight off by analysing a range of writing tasks (e.g. write a note for a friend, write a college assignment, write a letter applying for a job).
• Learners complete a writing task (which requires continuous prose) and hand in the plan and all the drafts, so that guidance can be offered about the planning and drafting stages. 

Source: Department for Education and Skills (2001) Adult ESOL Core Curriculum, DfES (2001)