From just reading to “reading like a writer”

Anyone can simply read a paper, but being able to “read like a writer” is a little different.  What is reading like a writer?  It’s not just reading for the entertainment of reading.  Reading like a writer is being able to analyze the paper you’re reading and pick out certain writing traits that are essential to any well written paper.  Reading like a writer is just as it sounds:  Reading like a writer who knows the traits would read.  It is being a little pickier, and a little more in tune to what a good piece of writing should contain.

So what are these so called essential traits?  Well, there are in fact 6 traits.  Education Northwest has a great page on these 6 traits of writing.  It gives a brief definition of each trait and some examples.  This site actually calls them “6 + 1 traits” because they add in presentation as an extra trait.

The first trait is Ideas.  The idea is what the paper is about.  It includes the theme, the main idea, and all the supporting details.  It is very important to have a strong idea in a piece of writing, otherwise readers won’t be interested and they may even be confused what exactly the point of the writing is.  The second trait is organization.  It is important that the ideas in the writing are organized in a logical way that will make the most sense to the reader. 

The third, fourth, and fifth traits are voice, word choice, and sentence fluency.  First of all, having voice is when your readers can hear you in the story.  They can get some of your emotions from the writing, and “hear” you telling it.  Word choice and sentence fluency both make writing appealing to readers, and they make reading the piece easy and enjoyable.  These three traits all help the reader get a sense of the writer and take pleasure in reading the story.

The sixth trait is conventions.  This is simply the correctness of the paper, meaning there are no spelling or grammar errors.  Having an error free piece of writing makes it seem more professional, and the reader will think more highly of it.

Every good writer considers these traits when writing their own paper.  Therefore, if you want to read like a writer well, you must consider each of these traits when reading someone else’s writing.  As teachers, we need to teach our students these six traits, and have them reading like writers.  This not only strengthens their ability to critique someone else’s writing, but it also strengthens their own writing ability.