The structure of the exported text
This exported text represents some of the detail from the Map on Healthy Eating. It has the title and key words from the Map with the major headings on the left, some with notes attached, and other words in bold to act as reminders or memos for inclusion in the text.
Improving the writing
The exported ‘map’ now needs to be edited and improved. A few minutes of editing with the addition of some connectives, and it begins to look more like a report or essay than a set of ideas and notes. Teachers working with a class using EyeWrite for the planning of writing might like at this stage to talk about introductions and connectives. It would be useful to model one or two paragraphs as a class activity on the large screen.
‘Polishing’ the writing
EyeWrite will have helped the learner to identify the key ideas, the connections, the references and the examples that provide the substance for an effective project or essay. The type of editing shown above, with the addition of introductory phrases and the use of connectives, will enhance the work and in the final phase the learner might consider a ‘polishing’ stage which improves it further.
All will depend upon the nature of the writing and its target audience, the assessment criteria for the work, and the length and detail expected, but a number of the ideas below may be appropriate:
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Learners might consider adding adjectives, adverbs, similes and metaphors in order to bring a little more ‘life’ to a sound but unexciting descriptive piece of writing.
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Users might make use of a Thesaurus in order to introduce more interesting and evocative vocabulary.
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Learners or teachers will find it useful to have the Concept Map open while improving the writing. Users might have included in their hyperlinks a range of images, references, quotations, data or case studies. Some of these might be introduced into the writing in tables or text boxes. This will be important in a wide range of writing tasks including investigations, discursive writing and evaluations. Indeed any kind of writing that asks for supporting evidence will find the hyperlinks facility very useful.
Blank sheet of paper
EyeWrite, therefore, is not designed to produce a ‘finished product’, but it will provide the basic content and the structure that will allow the ‘polishing’ process to take place. The software will provide enormous help to the many learners who currently start the process of planning with a blank sheet of paper and no idea of what to do next.
Tutorial 13 Improving Your Writing
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