The Definitive List of Writing and Grammar Skills, Strategies, Concepts, Categories, and Models
The Definitive List of Writing and Grammar Skills, Strategies, Concepts, Categories, and Models
The Definitive List of Writing and Grammar Skills, Strategies, Concepts, Categories, and Models
COPYRIGHT PROTECTED: Creating this list was a creative endeavor. I evaluated words and made
selective choices in order to create organized models. Beyond Fair Use, no part of this publication
may be copied or reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or on the cloud, transmitted in form by any
means, electronic, mechanical, and/or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the author.
© 2018 - All Rights Reserved
My goal with this definitive list of writing, grammar, and teaching-writing skills is to help teachers
who teach writing. Below I outline a number of benefits of this list, along with a number of ways to
use this list.
But let me be clear: If you teach beginning writers or struggling writers who have difficulty
getting ideas, organizing ideas, and creating well-structured whole compositions, then you want
Pattern Based Writing: Quick & Easy Essay.
Pattern Based Writing: Quick & Easy Essay is the fastest, most effective way to teach students
organized multi-paragraph essay writing… Guaranteed! Pattern Based Writing: Quick & Easy Essay
provides the framework and the foundation that makes teaching everything else in this ebook easy!
This giant list serves four primary purposes: 1) Overview, 2) Outline, 3) Checklist, and 4) Cheat Sheet. I
go into more detail below.
If you know the vocabulary of a topic, you are well on your way to understanding the topic. Certainly,
it’s difficult to understand a topic without knowing the vocabulary of the topic. Without a doubt, if
you spend time with this list, you will understand the world of writing and grammar much better. It
won’t be someone telling you what to think—you will be the one discovering what to think.
Models are an organized presentation of categories. Scholars have been creating grammar and
writing categories and models for thousands of years. And unbelievably, even today, scholars are still
creating categories and models. Furthermore, scholars passionately argue about the categories and
the models—the categories and models of the past and the present. Without categories and models,
a topic of study is just a long list of words.
Creating models is difficult because a model is a simplification that contains the truth. If you examine
the table of contents of this ebook, you will find a very simple representation of the entire world of
writing and grammar. It’s as simple as A, B, C, and D.
After the table of contents, you will find countless categories and models created with a clear
purpose. Great care went into selecting and organizing the categories and information. Naturally, I’ve
included many of history’s great grammar and writing models. But even with those models, I have
had to sort through and select the best and most helpful terms. Put simply, this is not just a list of
vocabulary words.
What creates great writing? It’s not just one thing—or even 100 things. In this ebook, you will find at
least 1000 different writing skills and concepts that have the potential to make writing better.
Certainly, I’m not suggesting that anyone needs to master over 1000 different writing skills and
writing concepts to write effectively. In fact, my point is quite the opposite.
4
Pattern Based Writing: Quick & Easy Essay © 2018
The Definitive List of Writing and Grammar Skills Pattern Based Writing: Quick & Easy Essay
While certain skills and aspects of writing and grammar are more important than others, no single
skill or aspect is overly important. Too often, teachers and students stay stuck on the same basic
skills—year after year. As a result, students never learn what’s truly interesting about language, and
they never come to appreciate it. In short, students learn that written language is a list of rules—
boring!
On the other hand, we don’t want to devote all of our energy to what is interesting and ignore what
is important. In the case of writing, a solid understanding of the topic as a whole is usually lacking and
always beneficial. This ebook is a complete overview of everything writing and grammar.
6. Checklists
Teachers and writers can use this ebook as a collection of checklists. As I have stated elsewhere,
these lists are comprehensive but also selective. If it’s in this ebook, it’s worth understanding. Having
said that, these lists are so comprehensive that some things are far more common than others and
some things are far more important than others, which means that one must use judgment when
using the lists as checklists. Here are four ways you might use these lists as checklists. Keep in mind
that a checklist is different from a cheat sheet or reference list, which I discuss next.
a) Checklist of what you know.
b) Checklist of what you need to learn.
c) Checklist of what you want to teach.
d) Checklist of what you have taught.
Students, teachers, and professional writers all can benefit from a quick review of important writing
and grammar skills. If we want skills and concepts to stick, from time to time, we must review them.
Furthermore, a quick review of specific writing skills can improve writing at most stages of the writing
process. This holds true for beginning writers and professional writers alike. Not every list in this
collection of lists is ideal for the job of cheat sheet, but many are.
The truth of writing and grammar exists on the printed page of every textbook that students read. Of
course, the narrative stories they read and the poetry they read also contain the truth. The more
skills and concepts that a teacher understands on these lists, the easier it is to use these lists to teach
writing across the curriculum. Teachers can use these lists to analyze text with students and to create
assignments that use a variety of skills.
5
Pattern Based Writing: Quick & Easy Essay © 2018
The Definitive List of Writing and Grammar Skills Pattern Based Writing: Quick & Easy Essay
9. Achieve Clarity
People have been creating grammar and writing models for thousands of years, and they continue to
do so. The result is that we have competing terms and models that express the same ideas (as if the
subject matter wasn’t already confusing enough). For this reason, it takes a certain amount of
focused research to figure out what you don’t understand and then to clear up your confusion.
Usually, when we read that there are three or four different types—it’s not true. What the author
means is that there are three or four different types in this model. A different model may claim that
there are five different types and use different words to name the types.
For this reason, this ebook highlights everything that creates confusion. This ebook highlights
synonyms, areas of confusion, and competing models. This ebook lists related items side-by-side in
order to foster curiosity and comparison. This ebook is not an over-simplified checklist. My goal is to
have the user constantly asking questions about his or her confusion: “What’s that? Doesn’t this term
mean the same thing as that term? What’s the difference between this and that?”
Most writing and grammar models are simplifications. We have the current popular model, we have
all of the models that came before, and we have the models that are yet to come. We teach students
that these models contain the truth when they are in reality just a simplification of the truth.
Here is what Edwin Herbert Lewis said in The History of the Paragraph (1894) about types of
paragraphs, “There may be as many types of paragraph as there are ways of developing an idea.
Exhaustively to enumerate these types would be useless and would require an arbitrary method.”
Well said! Of course, it doesn’t do our students much good to teach them that truth—or should I say,
only that truth.
Years ago, I read five (or more) books on grammar, and it seemed like I read the same book five
times. They were all the same ideas with the same format and the same list of exceptions. Although I
came to understand the basic things better, the books left me with the same questions and the same
confusion. I broke through that confusion by examining texts and asking questions about the things
that did not make sense to me. I researched my confusion question by question. Quickly, I discovered
that it’s common knowledge that traditional school grammar has many serious flaws and that
erroneous theories persist simply because no other theory has been able to replace it.
In short, I hope this ebook helps teachers break through the world of oversimplification. The text that
students read is often different from what we teach them about writing. Even simple sentences are
often more complicated than they appear on the surface.
6
Pattern Based Writing: Quick & Easy Essay © 2018
The Definitive List of Writing and Grammar Skills Pattern Based Writing: Quick & Easy Essay
Do you want to teach writing more easily and faster than ever before?
Do you want to get better results than ever before?
7
Pattern Based Writing: Quick & Easy Essay © 2018
The Definitive List of Writing and Grammar Skills Pattern Based Writing: Quick & Easy Essay
2. Verbs: definition of a verb; main verbs; action verbs; linking verbs; helping verbs; auxiliary
verbs; complete verbs; verb phrase; split verb phrase; linking verbs vs. helping verbs; state of being
verbs; simple verbs vs. complex verbs; multi-word linking verbs; subject verb agreement; regular and
irregular verbs; past, present, and future tense; the traditional 12 verb tenses; verbals (gerunds,
participles, infinitives - verb forms that function as a different part of speech); contractions; how to
modify verbs; verb suffixes and verb suffix spelling rules; transitive and intransitive verbs; action
verbs vs. non-action (stative) verbs; infinitives (a verb form that functions as a noun, adjective, or
adverb); infinitive phrase; split infinitive; active voice and passive voice; finite vs. infinite verbs;
phrasal verbs; complements (objects, predicate nouns, predicate adjectives); mood (indicative,
imperative, and subjunctive); number; modal verb (auxiliary verb that expresses necessity, obligation,
or possibility).
8
Pattern Based Writing: Quick & Easy Essay © 2018
The Definitive List of Writing and Grammar Skills Pattern Based Writing: Quick & Easy Essay
4. Adjectives: definition of an adjective; descriptive adjectives vs. limiting adjective vs. can
function as an adjective (participles, infinitives, adjective phrases, adjective clauses); attributive
adjectives; predicate adjectives; adjective order; true adjectives; articles; determiners; gradable
adjectives; adjectives as an object complement; adjective degree (positive/base form vs. comparative
form vs. superlative form); more/most vs. er/est; proper adjectives; adjective comma rules;
adjectives in a series; coordinate adjectives vs. cumulative adjectives; participle-adjective sentence
starters; appositive adjectives; compound adjectives; phrasal adjectives; hyphenated adjectives;
adjective overuse and purple prose; common adjective suffixes; changing adjectives to adverbs; the
questions that adjectives answer; intensifying adjectives.
definition of a determiner; determiner vs. adjective; history of the determiner; limiting adjective =
determiner; determiner & pronoun identification; possessive adjective vs. possessive pronoun; the
questions determiners answer; pre-determiners, central determiners, and post-determiners.
6. Adverbs: definition of an adverb; the questions that adverbs answer; intensifier / intensifying
adverbs; qualifiers; changing adverbs to adjectives; positive/base form vs. comparative form vs.
superlative form; more/most vs. er/est; conjunctive adverbs; relative adverbs; interrogative adverbs;
adverbs that modify verbs; adverbs that modify adjectives; adverbs that modify adverbs; sentence
adverbs; sentence adverbials; subjuncts; disjuncts; conjuncts.
Quirk et al. (1985) – Seven Semantic Roles of Adverbials: 1. SPACE (position, direction, distance); 2.
TIME (position, duration, frequency, relationship); 3. PROCESS (manner, means, instrument,
agentive); 4. RESPECT; 5. CONTINGENCY (cause, reason, purpose, result, condition, concession); 6.
MODALITY (emphasis, approximation, restriction); 7. DEGREE (amplification, diminution, measure).
9
Pattern Based Writing: Quick & Easy Essay © 2018
The Definitive List of Writing and Grammar Skills Pattern Based Writing: Quick & Easy Essay
Verbals:
1. Participles are verb forms that function as adjectives – A. past participles, and B. present
participles.
2. Gerunds are verb forms that function as nouns.
3. Infinitives are verb forms that function as nouns, adverbs, or adjectives.
Interrogatives: Interrogative Adverbs (Where is Jim?); Interrogative Pronouns (Who did it?);
Interrogative Determiner/Adjective (What day is it?)
10
Pattern Based Writing: Quick & Easy Essay © 2018
The Definitive List of Writing and Grammar Skills Pattern Based Writing: Quick & Easy Essay
Subject and Predicate: complete subject, complete predicate, simple subject, simple predicate,
compound subject, compound predicate
Dependent Clauses: adverbial clauses, adjective clauses, noun clauses, dependent words, embedded
questions
Various Structural and Stylistic Techniques and Concepts: sentence patterns, simple sentence
patterns, sentence openers, appositives, appositive phrases, clear transitions, buried transitions,
signal words, connectives, interrupters, sentence adverbials, parallel structure, sentence variety,
sentence fluency
Phrases and Clauses in Traditional Grammar vs. Phrases and Clauses in Modern Grammar
Various Advanced or Modern Clause and Phrase Concepts: WH-word clauses, verbless clauses,
elliptical clauses, reduced clauses, finite clause vs. non-finite clause, head of a phrase
Punctuation: final punctuation; comma rules; colons; semi-colons; dashes, hyphens; quotation
marks; apostrophes
11
Pattern Based Writing: Quick & Easy Essay © 2018
The Definitive List of Writing and Grammar Skills Pattern Based Writing: Quick & Easy Essay
12
Pattern Based Writing: Quick & Easy Essay © 2018
The Definitive List of Writing and Grammar Skills Pattern Based Writing: Quick & Easy Essay
Note: An isolated paragraph is a paragraph that we approach or think about as an isolated unit. In
whole compositions, paragraphs are not isolated, as each paragraph contributes to the unified whole.
With real writing, we rarely have a goal of writing a single isolated paragraph.
13
Pattern Based Writing: Quick & Easy Essay © 2018
The Definitive List of Writing and Grammar Skills Pattern Based Writing: Quick & Easy Essay
Argument Terms
• Big Ideas: Topic Sentence, Thesis Statement, Controlling Idea, Main Idea, Controlling Idea
Statement, Lead Sentence, Focus Statement, Theme Statement
• Small Ideas: Supporting Detail, Major Detail, Minor Detail, Proof, Support, Elaboration
14
Pattern Based Writing: Quick & Easy Essay © 2018
The Definitive List of Writing and Grammar Skills Pattern Based Writing: Quick & Easy Essay
1. Analysis
4. Cause / Effect
• Single Cause – Single Effect
• Single Cause – Multiple Effects
• Multiple Causes – Single Effect
• Multiple Causes – Multiple Effects
• Effect – Cause
• Effect –Multiple Causes
6. Clarification
7. Classification / Division: Divide the topic into parts or categories and discuss each one.
9. Critique / Evaluation
10. Definition
15
Pattern Based Writing: Quick & Easy Essay © 2018
The Definitive List of Writing and Grammar Skills Pattern Based Writing: Quick & Easy Essay
11. Description
• General Description of People, Places, and Things
• Use Sensory Details
• Scientific Description
• Describe a Process
• Describe an Event in Detail
13. Examples
• A Specific Instance, A Case In Point, An Illustration, Support, Hypothetical Example, Brief
Example, Extended Example
16
Pattern Based Writing: Quick & Easy Essay © 2018
The Definitive List of Writing and Grammar Skills Pattern Based Writing: Quick & Easy Essay
21. Points
• PPE: Point, Proof, Explanation
• PPC: Point, Proof, Comment
• PEE: Point, Evidence, Explanation
• PQC: Point, Quote, Comment
• PQE: Point, Quote, Explanation
• PEA: Point, Evidence, Analysis
• CEC: Claim, Evidence, Commentary
24. Reason: Giving a reason and providing support, evidence, and explanation is the foundation
of argument.
27. Summary
• To condense text and express it in brief.
• To summarize or sum up what came prior: e.g., 1) in a conclusion of an essay, or 2) by using
“in short,” “put simply,” or “in conclusion.”
• Summarize vs. Paraphrase vs. Retell
17
Pattern Based Writing: Quick & Easy Essay © 2018
The Definitive List of Writing and Grammar Skills Pattern Based Writing: Quick & Easy Essay
Definition Judicial
• Genus / Species • justice (right)
Division • injustice (wrong)
• Whole / Parts Deliberative
• Subject / Adjuncts • the good
Comparison • the unworthy
• Similarity / Difference / Degree • the advantageous
Relationship • the disadvantageous
• Cause / Effect Ceremonial
• Antecedent / Consequence • virtue (the noble)
• Contraries • vice (the base)
• Contradictions
Circumstances
• Possible / Impossible
• Past Fact / Future Fact
Testimony
• Authorities
• Witnesses
• Maxims or Proverbs
• Rumors
• Oaths
• Documents
• Law
• Precedent
• The supernatural
Notation and Conjugates
CC3.0 http://rhetoric.byu.edu/Canons/Invention/topics_of_invention/topics.htm
18
Pattern Based Writing: Quick & Easy Essay © 2018
The Definitive List of Writing and Grammar Skills Pattern Based Writing: Quick & Easy Essay
Introduction Techniques
19
Pattern Based Writing: Quick & Easy Essay © 2018
The Definitive List of Writing and Grammar Skills Pattern Based Writing: Quick & Easy Essay
Conclusion Techniques
20
Pattern Based Writing: Quick & Easy Essay © 2018
The Definitive List of Writing and Grammar Skills Pattern Based Writing: Quick & Easy Essay
4. Types of Sources and Where to Find Sources: internet, library, interviews, speeches,
observation, surveys, newspapers, encyclopedia, magazines, journals, TV, primary sources,
secondary sources.
8. Note Taking: types and methods; the index card system; dangers of copy and paste; how to
track and manage your quotes and sources.
10. Methods for Writing From Sources: quoting sources; paraphrasing sources; summarizing
sources.
11. Methods for Citing Sources: in-text citations/parenthetical citations vs. footnotes/endnotes.
12. The Citations Page: bibliography, annotated bibliography, works cited page, reference list,
permissions.
13. Notes: content notes vs. bibliographic notes, footnotes, endnotes, explanatory notes,
headnotes.
14. Quote Concepts and Techniques: direct quote; indirect quote; paraphrase; editing quotes
(ellipses, interpolation, sic, brackets); quote location (beginning, middle, or end of a
sentence); long quotes; block quotes; quotes vs. dialogue; speaker tags; speaker tag location;
said substitutes; quotation mark rules; quoting questions; scare quotes; broken quotes; partial
quotes; blind quotes.
21
Pattern Based Writing: Quick & Easy Essay © 2018
The Definitive List of Writing and Grammar Skills Pattern Based Writing: Quick & Easy Essay
2. Logical Fallacies
22
Pattern Based Writing: Quick & Easy Essay © 2018
The Definitive List of Writing and Grammar Skills Pattern Based Writing: Quick & Easy Essay
Schemes: 1) Schemes are used for effect. 2) They DO NOT affect meaning.
23
Pattern Based Writing: Quick & Easy Essay © 2018
The Definitive List of Writing and Grammar Skills Pattern Based Writing: Quick & Easy Essay
24
Pattern Based Writing: Quick & Easy Essay © 2018
The Definitive List of Writing and Grammar Skills Pattern Based Writing: Quick & Easy Essay
Logical Fallacies
Formal Syllogistic Fallacies: Illicit Major, Illicit Minor, Undistributed Middle, Fallacy of Four
Terms, Affirming the Consequent, Denying the Antecedent
1. Appeal to Emotion
1. Appeal to Emotion (argumentum ad passions): Appeal to joy, happiness, sadness, anger, love,
disgust, fear, surprise, courage, desire, hope, guilt, shame, grief, rage, pleasure, pain, wonder,
curiosity, contempt, ridicule, pride.
2. Appeal to Force / Argumentum ad Baculum / Appeal to the Stick
3. Appeal to Pity / Argumentum ad Misericordiam
4. Appeal to Flattery / Appeal to Vanity
5. Wishful Thinking
6. Misleading Vividness
1. Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc / Post Hoc Fallacy / Latin: After This, Therefore Because Of This /
Happened Before Does Not Mean Caused
25
Pattern Based Writing: Quick & Easy Essay © 2018
The Definitive List of Writing and Grammar Skills Pattern Based Writing: Quick & Easy Essay
2. Cum Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc / Latin: With This, Therefore Because Of This / Correlation Does
Not Imply Causation / False Cause
3. Slippery Slope
4. Gambler’s Fallacy
5. Fallacy of the Single Cause / Oversimplification
6. False Cause
1. Equivocation
2. Ambiguity / Amphiboly
26
Pattern Based Writing: Quick & Easy Essay © 2018
The Definitive List of Writing and Grammar Skills Pattern Based Writing: Quick & Easy Essay
1. Fiction/Non-Fiction
3. Format Genres: Essay, Article, Report, Research Report, Story, Letter, Journal, Summary,
Short Answer, Constructed Response, Response to Literature/Literary Essay, Review/Critique,
Advertisement, Directions, Sketch/Passage, Editorial, Op-Ed, Memo, Note, E-mail, Poetry
4. PIE-RR Purpose: Persuade, Inform, Entertain, Reflect, Record
6. Common Thought Patterns, Common Organizational Patterns, and Common Text Structures:
a) Order: Chronological Order, Time Order, Sequence, Process, How-to,
b) Classic Concepts: Cause-Effect, Compare-Contrast, Division-Classification, Spatial Order,
Definition
c) Two Sides of an Issue: Compare-and-Contrast using Pro-Con, Advantages-Disadvantages,
For-Against, Benefits-Drawbacks, Praise-Criticism
d) Methods of Development: Development by Giving Specific Instances, Development by
Giving Examples, Development by Giving Reasons, Development by Generalization and
Support, Development by Generalization and Explanation, Development by Question and
Answer
e) Development with the Point Patterns: PPE, PPC, PEE, PQC, PQE, PEA, CEC
f) Order Based On Importance or Intensity: Climatic Order, Anticlimactic Order, Bookend
Order
g) Order Based on Specificity or Complexity: General to Specific, Specific to General, Simple
to Complex
h) Order Based on Logic: Deductive Reasoning, Inductive Reasoning
i) Point by Point vs. Block Method
27
Pattern Based Writing: Quick & Easy Essay © 2018
The Definitive List of Writing and Grammar Skills Pattern Based Writing: Quick & Easy Essay
1. Story: Elements: Genre, Characters, Setting (Time and Place), Plot, Problem, Conflict, Point
of View, Theme/Theme Statement, Literary Techniques, and Resolution
3. Story: Genre: Comedy, Drama, Tragedy, Tale, Myth, Epic, Realistic, Historical, Fantasy, Science
Fiction, Horror/Monster, Supernatural, Sports, Western, Mystery, Suspense, Thriller, Detective,
Adventure, Survival, Relationship, Friendship, Biographical, Personal, Fact-Based, Satire, Allegory
4. Story: Genre: Netflix: See Netflix’s list of unique genres, which numbers in the thousands
or tens of thousands.
5. Story: Genre: Tales: Folk Tale, Tall Tale, Fairy Tale, Legend, Myth, Fable, Parable, PourQuoi
Tale
6. Story: Basic Plot: 1) Exposition, 2) Inciting Incident / Destabilizing Event, 3) The Decision, 4)
Rising Action, 5) Climax, 6) Falling Action, 7) Resolution / Denouement.
7. Story: More Plot and Structure Concepts: Action, Cause-Effect, In medias res, Deus
ex machina, Plot Device, Plot Twist, Plot Points, Sub-Plot, Multi-Plot, Revelations, Ticking Clock,
Turning Point, Cliffhanger, Chekhov's Gun, The MacGuffin, Red Herring, Eucatastrophe, Happy
Ending, Poetic Justice, Reunion, Reconciliation, Goals (Story Goal, Intermediate Goal, Scene Goal),
Stakes, Raising the Stakes, The Plan of Action, Obstacles, Opposition, Dramatic Structure,
Narrative Hook, Exposition, Scene and Summary, Setup and Payoff, Backstory, Ghost From the
Past, Foreshadowing, Flashback, Flash-forward, Bookends, Framing Devices, Frame Story (story-
within-a-story), Surprise, Suspense, Change Over Time, Three-Act Structure, Comedy Techniques
and Concepts.
28
Pattern Based Writing: Quick & Easy Essay © 2018
The Definitive List of Writing and Grammar Skills Pattern Based Writing: Quick & Easy Essay
Happiness, Obstacles to a Goal, Loss of Loved Ones, Recovery of Something Lost, Lost and Found,
Ambition, Rags to Riches, The Rise, The Fall, The Rise and Fall, The Rise and Fall and Rise Again,
Taking Action that Conflicts with Beliefs and Values, Bad Judgment, The Fatal Flaw, Regret, The
Enigma, The Hero, The Hero’s Journey, The Hero Within, The Underdog, The Puppet Master, The
Quest, Discovery, The Fish Out of Water, Good vs. Evil, Temptation, Success Against all Odds, A
Bad Deal Made Right, Cinderella, Unappreciated Goodness Rewarded, Rumpelstiltskin, David vs.
Goliath, Mistaken Identity, Poetic Justice (Virtue Rewarded & Vice Punished) (many based on
Georges Polti - 1867-1946)
10. Story: Plots: The “Only” Two Story Plots (Tolstoy or John Gardner)
1. A person goes on a journey.
2. A stranger comes to town.
11. Story: Themes: Friendship, Family, Love, Relationships, Money, Greed, Power, Control,
Sacrifice, Betrayal, Revenge, Loyalty, Forgiveness, Survival, Success, Failure, Glory, Honor, Truth,
Morality, Beliefs, Values, Goodness, Evil, Pride, Jealousy, Arrogance, Modesty, Ambition, Attitude,
Change, Meaning of Life, Death, Honesty, Integrity, Freedom, Fun, Commitment, Pain, Heath,
Creativity, Problems, Passion, Fate, Destiny, Choices and Decisions, Indecision, Circle of Life,
Cause-and-Effect, Denial, Acceptance, Self-Awareness, Self-Discipline, Self-Respect, Gluttony,
Loneliness, Suffering, Addiction, Excess, Beauty, Growing Old, Work, The System, Society, Social
Norms, Laws and Rules, Tradition, Obedience, Authority, Technology, Nature, Mother Earth,
Wastefulness, Patriotism, War, Duty, Equality, Fairness, Respect, Intolerance, Racism, Sexism,
Prejudice, Bullies, Kindness, Human Decency, The Human Spirit, Human Nature, Forgiveness,
Charity, Trust, Letting Go, Work Habits, Hard Work, Genius, Persistence, Responsibly,
Determination, Goals, Leadership, Courage, Cowardice, Effort, Misfortune, Luck, Randomness,
Risk, Rewards, Caution, Politics, Religion, Economics
12. Story: Theme Statement: The theme statement is the theme message contained in
the story stated in a single sentence.
13. Story: Conflict: 1. Person vs. Person; 2. Person vs. Self; 3. Person vs. Nature; 4. Person
vs. God; 5. Person vs. Society; 6. Person Caught in the Middle; 7. Man and Woman; 8. Person vs.
Machine or Technology; 9. Person vs. Monster or Evil (based on Arthur Quiller-Couch 1863-1944)
29
Pattern Based Writing: Quick & Easy Essay © 2018
The Definitive List of Writing and Grammar Skills Pattern Based Writing: Quick & Easy Essay
15. Story: Narrative Time: The narrator tells the story in time: 1. Past Tense (most
common), 2. Present Tense (trendy), or 3. Future Tense (rare). Note: The Historical Present uses
the present tense for past events.
17. Story: Using the Four Main Genres in a Story: 1) Narration, 2) Description, 3)
Exposition, and 4) Argument.
a) Four Basic Personality Types: 1) The Extrovert, 2) The Amiable, 3) The Analytical,
and 4) The Pragmatic.
f) Other Story Archetypes: 1) The Scapegoat, 2) The Outcast, 3) The Child, 4) The
Mother, 5) The Father, 6) The Evil Character, 7) The Opponent, 8) The Monster, 9) The
Detective, 10) The Cowboy, etc.
g) Types of Heroes: Hero, Antihero, Reluctant Hero, Tragic hero, Superhero, Byronic Hero.
30
Pattern Based Writing: Quick & Easy Essay © 2018
The Definitive List of Writing and Grammar Skills Pattern Based Writing: Quick & Easy Essay
20. Story: Plot: Hero’s Journey (Vogler’s Simplification of Campbell): Act 1: 1) Ordinary
World, 2) Call to Adventure, 3) Refusal of the Call, 4) Meeting with the Mentor, 5) Crossing the
First Threshold, Act 2: 6) Tests, Allies, Enemies, 7) Approach to Inmost Cave, 8) Ordeal, 9) Reward
– Seizing the Sword, Act 3: 10) The Road Back, 11) Resurrection, 12) Return with the Elixir
23. Story: Symbolic Settings: Utopia, Dystopia, Imaginary World, Big City, Small Town,
Farm, Prairie, Factory, Desert, Beach, Ocean, Space, Mountain Top, The Road, The Basement, The
Penthouse, An Approaching Storm, The Eye of a Hurricane, etc.
31
Pattern Based Writing: Quick & Easy Essay © 2018
The Definitive List of Writing and Grammar Skills Pattern Based Writing: Quick & Easy Essay
4. Morphological Concepts and Strategies: prefixes; suffixes; affixes; base words; root words;
stems; Greek roots; Latin roots; Greek and Latin prefixes and suffixes; word families; Cloze
word strategy
5. signal words; transitions; time and order words; concrete words; word choice; sensory words;
strong verbs vs. weak verbs
6. spelling rules; apostrophes; abbreviations; syllables; acronyms; British vs. U.S. spelling;
compound words; hyphenated words; rules for writing numbers; rules for plurals; rules for
possessives
32
Pattern Based Writing: Quick & Easy Essay © 2018
The Definitive List of Writing and Grammar Skills Pattern Based Writing: Quick & Easy Essay
33
Pattern Based Writing: Quick & Easy Essay © 2018
The Definitive List of Writing and Grammar Skills Pattern Based Writing: Quick & Easy Essay
34
Pattern Based Writing: Quick & Easy Essay © 2018
The Definitive List of Writing and Grammar Skills Pattern Based Writing: Quick & Easy Essay
More Traits: Logic, Accurateness, Credibility, Emotion, Balance, Order, Proportion, Focus, Power,
Force, Presentation, Technique, Creativity.
Note: This is also known as The Rhetorical Appeals, The Aristotelian Appeals, and The Aristotelian
Triad.
Aristotle’s Triangle is the foundation for all the triangles, squares, pentagons, hexagons, and
heptagons that followed:
35
Pattern Based Writing: Quick & Easy Essay © 2018
The Definitive List of Writing and Grammar Skills Pattern Based Writing: Quick & Easy Essay
The Writing Process Writer’s Workshop Six Traits of Writing
Many hospital accidents occur because people don’t properly use the writing process. Yes, the writing
process can be a matter of life and death. The writing process should have a goal of communicating
the correct message appropriately and effectively. The goal is not to mechanically go through steps.
The goal is to get it right--for the circumstances!
The Writing Process – Traditional Version The Real Writing Process is Recursive
1. Prewriting 1. Prewriting
2. Drafting
2. Writing
3. Revising
3. Rewriting
4. Proofreading
5. Publishing 4. Publishing
36
Pattern Based Writing: Quick & Easy Essay © 2018
The Definitive List of Writing and Grammar Skills Pattern Based Writing: Quick & Easy Essay
Do you want to improve your students’ independent writing across the curriculum? In other words,
do you want what you teach your students about writing to stick? If you do, how you teach writing is
more important than what you teach.
In The Neglected “R”: The Need for a Writing Revolution, the National Commission on Writing stated
two clear facts about teaching writing:
1. “Experiments over the last 50 years have shown negligible improvements in the quality of
student writing as a result of grammar instruction.”
2. “Decades of research (Elly, 1979, Hillocks, 1986, Freedman, 1993, Freedman and Daiute, 2001)
have shown that instructional strategies such as isolated skill drills fail to improve student
writing.”
This is why turning pages in a curriculum is often ineffective and why so many books exist on how to
teach writing.
1. writing across the curriculum; teaching writing across the curriculum; writing to learn; Writer’s
Workshop; Six Traits of Writing; finding the time to teach writing; managing time; creating
writing assignments; deadlines; time limits; how parents can help support writing; routines
and procedures; mini-lessons; why mini-lessons; reading/writing connection; read like a
writer; prescriptive vs. descriptive grammar; busywork that doesn’t create real writing
success; modeling; guided writing; writing frames (framed paragraph, framed response;
templates)
2. state writing standards; Common Core writing standards; how to meet the standards; grade-
by-grade writing expectations
3. the research on teaching writing; teaching grammar vs. teaching writing; formulaic writing;
whole language; product vs. process; authentic writing assignments; myths about writing;
grammar myths; traditional grammar vs. modern grammar influenced by linguistics; usage
37
Pattern Based Writing: Quick & Easy Essay © 2018
The Definitive List of Writing and Grammar Skills Pattern Based Writing: Quick & Easy Essay
4. writing from sources; writing from pictures; writing from observation; writing from recall;
writing from experience; writing prompts; making text connections (text-to-self, text-to-text,
text-to-world)
5. remedial writing instruction; scaffolding writing instruction; writing and special needs; writing
accommodations; reluctant writers; reasons why students are reluctant writers; ESL/ELL and
teaching writing; writer's block
7. writing assessments (written vs. multiple choice); rubrics; checklists; problems with rubrics
and checklists; student created rubrics and checklists; holding students accountable; grading
writing; how to assess writing; analytic rubric; holistic rubric; criteria; genre-specific rubric;
task-specific rubric; Six Traits rubric; Six Traits holistic rubric; single-trait rubric; single-skill
rubric; single-point rubric; how to create a rubric; how to turn a checklist into a rubric; how to
evaluate writing; released writing prompts; on-demand writing; writing portfolios; different
ways to assess writing; ways to assess writing quickly and consistently
8. conferring with students; providing feedback; responding to student writing; knowing what
you know and what you don’t know about writing and grammar; how to make a piece of
writing better; how to make a piece of writing different; fostering student ownership of
writing; the Red Pen
9. Outlining: 1) Learning to write by outlining text, 2) Creating outlines for one’s own writing.
10. graphic organizers; quick writes; writing warm-ups; writing journals; writer’s notebook;
exemplars; mentor text; student writing samples
38
Pattern Based Writing: Quick & Easy Essay © 2018