Composing Texts and the Writing Process – Effective Communication (Senior 4 General and Religious Studies) | Ganzaa

Effective Communication

Lessons

Senior 4 · General and Religious Studies

Effective Communication

5 lessons

Lesson 3 of 5

Composing Texts and the Writing Process

30 min

Two versions of one paragraph

Two students answered the question "Should boarding schools allow students to keep mobile phones?" Read both.

Version A: "Phones are good and also bad. Some students use them for bad things like games and some for good things. In my opinion I think that schools should think about it because phones are part of life today and many people have them so it is a big issue for everyone."

Version B: "Boarding schools should allow phones, but only at set times. A phone lets a student call home in an emergency and opens dictionaries and revision materials that small schools cannot afford in print. Yet a phone kept under the pillow costs sleep, and a group chat during lessons steals attention. Set times, for example an hour each evening with phones kept by the matron overnight, keep the benefits and remove most of the costs. The real question, then, is not whether to allow phones but when."

Version A has opinions but no clear point, no reasons a reader can test and no conclusion. Version B makes one claim, supports it, deals with the other side and ends by linking back to the question. The difference is not talent. It is a process, and this lesson teaches it.

Definition

Text: any piece of language, written or spoken, that communicates a complete message: a letter, an essay, a speech, a notice.

Purpose: what a text is meant to do (inform, explain, describe, narrate, persuade, instruct). Audience: who it is for.

Register: the level of formality of the language. Formal register suits an application letter; informal register suits a message to a friend.

Topic sentence: the sentence, usually first, that states the main point of a paragraph.

Revising: improving the content and organisation of a draft. Editing: improving sentences, word choice and grammar. Proofreading: a final check for spelling, punctuation and typing errors.

Kinds of text

Kind	Purpose	Typical features	Example
Narrative	Tell a story	Characters, events in time order, past tense	A short story about a journey home
Descriptive	Help the reader see, hear or feel	Sensory details, precise adjectives	A description of Nyungwe forest at dawn
Expository	Explain or inform	Facts, definitions, clear headings, neutral tone	An article on how a cooperative works
Argumentative	Prove a position with reasons and evidence	Claim, reasons, evidence, counter-argument, conclusion	Version B above
Persuasive	Move the reader to act or believe	Appeals to values and feelings as well as reason	A speech asking students to join a tree-planting day
Procedural	Tell the reader how to do something	Numbered steps, commands, materials list	Instructions for registering for an exam

The writing process

Figure 4: the writing process. It is not a straight line: good writers loop back. Revising (big changes to content and order) comes before editing and proofreading (small changes to sentences, words and spelling). Drawn by Ganzaa.

Prewriting. Decide your purpose and audience, then generate ideas. Useful techniques: brainstorming (list everything, judge nothing); a mind map (topic in the centre, branches for ideas); free-writing (write without stopping for five minutes); the question words who, what, when, where, why and how.
Planning. Choose your best ideas, decide your main claim, and put the points in order in an outline.
Drafting. Write the whole text quickly, following the outline. Do not stop to fix every word.
Revising. Read as the audience would. Is the main point clear? Is each claim supported? Is anything missing or off the topic? Move, add and cut whole sentences and paragraphs.
Editing and proofreading. Improve sentences and word choice; then check spelling, punctuation, names, dates and figures.
Publishing. Produce the clean final copy and share it with its audience.

Worked example: from ideas to an outline

Prewriting (brainstorm on "phones in boarding schools"): call home in an emergency; dictionaries and revision apps; digital skills; distraction in class; cyberbullying; lost sleep; theft; students without phones feel left out; set times; matron keeps phones at night.

Planning (outline):

Claim: allow phones, but only at set times.
Benefits: emergency contact; learning materials.
Costs: sleep; attention in class (and, for a longer essay, cyberbullying).
Solution: set times; phones kept by staff overnight.
Conclusion: the question is when, not whether.

Ideas such as "theft" and "students without phones feel left out" were left out of this paragraph; they could become a second paragraph in a longer essay. Planning means choosing, not only listing.

Worked example: the anatomy of a paragraph (PEEL)

Part	From Version B
Point (topic sentence)	"Boarding schools should allow phones, but only at set times."
Evidence	"A phone lets a student call home in an emergency ... Yet a phone kept under the pillow costs sleep ..."
Explain	"Set times ... keep the benefits and remove most of the costs."
Link	"The real question, then, is not whether to allow phones but when."

Linking words carry the reader from one idea to the next: first, moreover, however, yet, for example, as a result, therefore, in conclusion.

Warning

Do not edit before you revise. Polishing the spelling of a paragraph that you will later delete wastes time. Fix the big things (point, evidence, order) first, the small things (commas, spelling) last. And do not copy another writer's sentences as your own: that is plagiarism. Use your own words, and name your source when you use someone's idea or data.

Tip

Read it aloud. When you revise, read your draft aloud, or ask a friend to read it to you. Your ear catches missing words, sentences that are too long, and places where the meaning jumps.

Important

Discuss. Many students now use AI tools that can produce a draft in seconds. Which stages of the writing process can such a tool help with, and which must remain the writer's own? What would be dishonest use?

Tech meets Rhet: "The Writing Process: A Step by Step Guide to Academic Writing", about 5 minutes. Note what the video says happens at each stage, and where it says writers loop back.

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Practice

Distinguish revising, editing and proofreading.
Name the kind of text: (a) instructions for using a fire extinguisher; (b) an essay proving that girls' education reduces poverty; (c) a story about your first day at secondary school; (d) an article explaining how the Ubudehe programme works.
Use three different prewriting techniques to generate ideas on "The role of young people in protecting the environment".
Turn your ideas from question 3 into an outline of five points.
Write one PEEL paragraph from your outline, then label its four parts.
Revise Version A from the start of the lesson into a clear paragraph of your own.
Explain why the writing process is described as recursive (looping back), not linear.

Show answersHide answers

Revising improves content and organisation (adding, moving, cutting ideas); editing improves sentences, words and grammar; proofreading is the final check for spelling, punctuation and typing errors.
(a) procedural; (b) argumentative; (c) narrative; (d) expository.
Open answer. For example, a brainstorm list, a mind map with branches (waste, trees, water, energy, awareness) and a five-minute free-write.
Example: claim (young people are key to protecting the environment); action at home (sorting waste, saving water); action at school (environment clubs, tree planting); action online (sharing accurate information); conclusion.
Open answer. Check that the Point is one sentence, the Evidence gives facts or examples, the Explanation shows why the evidence supports the point, and the Link returns to the question.
Example: "Schools should decide clear rules for phones. Phones help students learn and keep in touch with home, but used at the wrong time they disturb lessons and sleep. Clear rules about when phones may be used would keep the benefits and limit the harm."
Because writers often go back: revising may show that the plan was weak, so they replan and redraft; editing may reveal a missing idea, so they revise again. The stages are steps to return to, not a road travelled once.

Quick check

Put the stages of the writing process in order.

Tap the cards in the right order.

Key points

Every text has a purpose and an audience; its kind (narrative, descriptive, expository, argumentative, persuasive, procedural) follows from its purpose.
The writing process: prewriting, planning, drafting, revising, editing and proofreading, publishing; it loops back whenever needed.
Revise content first, edit and proofread last; build paragraphs with Point, Evidence, Explain, Link.
Use your own words and name your sources: copying is plagiarism.

Sources and credits

Video: "The Writing Process: A Step by Step Guide to Academic Writing", Tech meets Rhet, embedded from YouTube.

Written by Ganzaa: the two versions, Figure 4, the tables, the worked examples and the exercises. PEEL is a common classroom acronym for paragraph structure; the explanation here is Ganzaa's own.

1Two versions of one paragraph

2Kinds of text

3The writing process

Two versions of one paragraph

Kinds of text

The writing process