Content and Ideas

Content in Writing

Development and Elaboration of content in writing

​You will need to make notes during this presentation. For this lesson, create Cornell Notes in your composition book.

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Make Notes

Effective essays are not just a collection of words and sentences: they have a point.​

• As a writer, you need to:

  • Be clear about your point—the main idea of your essay

  • Decide what information you need to include to support your main idea

  • Think about why your reader needs to know the information you are sharing​

Writing Content and Ideas

Development and Elaboration

• Effective essays offer the reader information or insight he or she does not already know

  • For your reader to fully appreciate the point of your essay, you need to:

    • Provide enough details, explanations, and examples to illustrate your main idea

    • Avoid cluttering the essay with irrelevant information that doesn’t contribute anything but length to the essay​

Writing Content and Ideas

Constructing Meaning

What is content in writing, and why is it important? Choose one or more of the language function tools below to answer this question in your notes.

• _____ explains how/why _____.

• _____ contains _____ and tends to _____.

• Characteristics (Components) of _____ include _____ and _____.

• _____ is widely acknowledged as _____ and exhibits _____.​

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Writing Content and Ideas

Open Ended

What is content in writing, and why is it important? Share what you composed in your composition book.

​Writing Level	​Score	​Essay Description
​Proficient Writer	​4	​The writer’s main idea is clear, and the development and elaboration in the essay and in each paragraph are consistent. Supporting points are developed, giving enough details, examples, explanations, and supporting facts to satisfy the reader’s need for information. Few, if any, irrelevancies are included.
​	​3	​The writer has a main idea, but it’s implied. There are supporting details with some elaboration but they are underdeveloped. Some of the points made or information included may be irrelevant to the topic, purpose, and audience.
​Developing Writer	​2	​The writer has a main idea, but it’s implied. Supporting points may be supplied, but they are not elaborated upon in the essay. Some of the points made or information provided may be irrelevant to the topic, purpose, or audience.
​	​	​The writer’s main idea, if any, is unclear. There are too few or no supporting points, and the writer does not elaborate upon the details he or she presents. Some of the points made or information provided are irrelevant to the topic, purpose, or audience.
​Struggling Writer	​0	No evidence is provided to evaluate the content.

​Content and Development Rubric

​Create a Venn diagram in your composition book, and compare and contrast proficient content to developing content in writing.

Compare and Contrast

According to the Content and Development Rubric, what are the similarities and differences between​ a proficient writer and developing writer when it comes to content and development? Use one or more of the language function tools to answer the question in your composition book.

• _____ and _____ are similar because they both _____.

• _____ and _____ are different because _____ is _____ and _____ is _____.

• Although _____ ad _____ have some similar _____, they have different _____.

• ​The differences/similarities between _____ and _____ are _____.

• While _____ and _____ are both _____ there are several differences between them. The most noticeable difference is that _____ has _____, whereas _____ has _____.​

Writing Content and Ideas

The Great Atlanta Fire​

Read the following essay and use the Content and Development Rubric to assign a score to the essay. The evaluation will happen on the next slide.

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The Great Atlanta Fire

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Very little is know about the cause of the Great Atlanta Fire of 1917. However, given the weather conditions that summer and the way the city had been built and managed, the most popular story might indeed be true.

Atlanta firefighters were familiar with fighting more than one fire per day. They probably would have been able to control the Great Fire, but human error combined with unpredictable Nature to cause this historic disaster.

Thousands of people fled their homes, but the fire chased them. Later that night, several homes were completely destroyed. All over the city, elaborate new hotels and office buildings were destroyed. Ironically, newspaper editors had recently pleaded with local government to improve the city’s fire protection in order to avoid exactly this type of disaster. Atlanta has always been known for cutting-edge, hard hitting news reporting. On Monday morning, the fire began and fizzled out by itself late at night, but isolated fires continued to smolder the rest of the week. The fire left Atlanta a burned-out ruin.​

Content and Ideas in Writing

Multiple Choice

How would you rate the “The Great Atlanta Fire” according to the rubric?

• 0

• 1

• 2

• 3

• 4

Open Ended

Explain and Describe why you gave the “Great Atlanta Fire” writing the grade you did?

Use the language function tools to write your reasoning.

My opinion on the issue of _____ is _____. This assertion is justified by _____. According to _____, _____. There is little doubt that _____.

WHY 1?

WHY?

• The student’s introduction mentions city management and weather as contributing factors to the severity of the fire. However, the author does not go into detail about either of those points. From reading the essay, can you identify what the weather was like? Do you know anything about how the city was built and managed?

• The student also mentions that the “most popular story” about what caused the fire may be true, but can you tell what this popular story is? Is it mentioned any further? Can you identify important dates and specific facts that illustrate the author’s points?​

Content and Ideas in Writing

Write a paragraph about what you learned

On the next slide, you will be presented with a template to write an expository summary paragraph. The paragraph needs to capture what you have learned about Content and Ideas.

Content and Idea in Writing

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