The Six Traits of Writing
1. Ideas: writing that has a clear message and contains specific ideas and supporting details.
2. Organization: writing that has a clear beginning, middle, and end and is well organized.
3. Voice: your own way of saying things
4. Word Choice: writing that uses strong, vivid words that appeal to the senses.
5. Sentence Fluency: writing that easily flows and has a variety of sentences.
6. Conventions: writing that is carefully edited and follows the rules of spelling, grammar, and punctuation.
The Writing Process:
1. Prewriting
a. selecting a topic
b. gathering details
c. organizing details
2. Writing
a. developing your first draft
b. getting ideas on paper
c. includes a beginning, middle, and ending
3. Revising
a. focusing on the big picture
b. word choice
c. sequential order of ideas
4. Editing
a. checking for conventions (punctution, grammar, spelling,
capitalization)
b. preparing final copy
c. proofread final copy for errors
5. Publishing
a. format and design copy for publication
b.share your finished work
NJ Holistic Scoring Rubric