Where's the Beef? Explained.

Parents, today, we reviewed the Where's The Beef? commercial and students rightly guessed that, in terms of their writing, I was looking for more substance. I'm looking for more hamburger in the bun!

In particular, I am looking for specific details. Writers need to paint pictures in their readers head. Give me, your reader, a clear, specific vision to hold onto! If you add more specific detail to your communication--no matter what writing form (letter, story, report, review, essay, etc), your writing will vastly improve.

This does not mean just giving more sentences. If those sentences are 'vague', it won't improve the writing. This is one of my writing mantras: longer writing does not equal better writing! You can have pages and pages of bad writing. You can have a tight 5 line paragraph of good writing. I want the good writing!

I have given students these small booklets I call Idea Books or Response Journals. They do not allow for a lot of writing per page. Some students are a bit confused by them. Don't teachers usually ask you to 'write more'? Aren't we supposed to be writing paragraphs? Aren't we supposed to be writing essays?

We will. But first I think we need to look at quality. We are going to go line by line, even word by word in some cases.  Instead of just saying 'a student', 'a boy', 'a school', get specific. Give me 'female dance student, age 6', 'Freddy from ICarly', 'Hogwart's School of Witchcraft & Wizardry' . I now have a much more specific idea in mind.

When you are writing summaries, or providing proof in main idea paragraphs, the same idea holds true. The more specific proof or example you give, the stronger your argument.

We discussed this quote as well (also on the daily quote page): "When asked 'How do you write?' I invariably answer, 'One word at a time.'" Stephen King, famous author, writer of 49 novels.

Writing is built word by word. As we start our first writing assignment (news report), we will be breaking it down. What is your first line? What is a good first line? How can you improve that first line? What do you put down next?

This need for the right amount of detail will be looked at all year long even though the writing forms will change over time (reports, reviews, main idea/persuasive paragraphs (fall), comparative essay on Romeo & Juliet, short story (winter), poems, procedures (spring)).

Let's go create high quality hamburgers!