Approved writing book practice guide

Writing improves as a process, not a page

*How to Teach Writing* by Jeremy Harmer (Pearson) treats writing as cycles of planning, drafting and editing aimed at a real reader, and that stance shapes practice: you improve by writing for someone, revising with a purpose, and seeing what the first attempt actually did to a reader.

Model before you measure

Read one strong example of the target kind of text and name what it does: how it opens, how it moves, how it closes. Two or three noticed moves beat a page of abstract advice, and the model gives your draft something concrete to aim at before the red pen appears.

The two-pass edit

Pass one reads for content only: does each paragraph do its job, is anything missing, what can go. Pass two handles language: verbs, articles, spelling. Mixing the passes means you polish sentences you are about to delete, which is why drafts stay wordy.

Audience changes everything

The same request rewritten for a manager, a friend and a stranger becomes three different texts: different opening, different evidence, different politeness. Practise the swap deliberately; it teaches register faster than any table of formal and informal words.

Exercise: write one message twice

Take a real request from your week. Write it for your manager, then for a friend. Under forty words each, then underline what changed.

Worked example

Plan a writing task in four stages: brainstorm, outline, draft, revise. Spend five minutes on each. In revision, check one feature at a time: clarity, organization, grammar, spelling. Peer feedback comes after the writer has revised once, so comments build on a solid draft.

Common pitfalls

• Starting to write without a plan.
• Trying to fix everything in one pass.
• Accepting all feedback uncritically.
• Skipping the final proofread.

Practice

Complete one writing task this week using the four stages. Keep a log of which revision checks found the most issues. Adjust time allocation next time.

Checklist

• Plan created.
• Draft completed.
• One-feature revisions done.
• Peer feedback used.
• Final proofread completed.

Mini-exercise

Write a short paragraph in four stages. Revise once for clarity and once for grammar, then read it aloud.

Related lessons

Build with writing a clear paragraph topic sentence and edit with checking an essay for relevance.

Source

Original LinguaPro practice informed by *How to Teach Writing* by Jeremy Harmer (Pearson). No text from the book is reproduced; the two-pass edit and audience exercise are original.