Writing, Language Conventions, and the Writing Process
The process is recursive
Prewriting (brainstorming, graphic organizers), drafting, revising, editing, and publishing are taught in order but rarely followed in order; writers loop back. Revising changes content, organization, and word choice; editing fixes conventions. Mnemonics help: ARMS for revision (add, remove, move, substitute) and CUPS for editing (capitalization, usage, punctuation, spelling). The six-plus-one traits - ideas, organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency, conventions, presentation - give a shared vocabulary for feedback. The tested modes are narrative, informational/explanatory, and opinion/argument, each with its own structure and language features.
Conventions
Know simple, compound, complex, and compound-complex sentences; fragments and run-ons; and the comma splice as a specific run-on joined by only a comma. Review commas for items in a series, introductory elements, compound sentences, and nonrestrictive elements; apostrophes for possession and contraction; quotation marks with the comma or period inside; subject-verb agreement with interrupting phrases; pronoun-antecedent agreement; and dangling modifiers.
Spelling
Spelling develops in stages: emergent, letter-name (semi-phonetic), within-word pattern, syllables and affixes, and derivational relations. Invented spelling is developmental evidence, not carelessness.
Traps
Items label a content change as editing, or a punctuation fix as revision. Others disguise a comma splice inside a long sentence.
Worked example
The game was cancelled, the field was flooded. Two independent clauses joined only by a comma - a comma splice. Repair it with a semicolon, a period, or a comma plus a coordinating conjunction.