The Writing with Purpose Routine

Teachers use the Writing with Purpose Routine to engage students in the process of creating a piece of writing to achieve a specific purpose. It is intended for teachers of adolescent writers in general education settings across multiple content areas in which students are expected to write in a variety of genres.

The Writing with Purpose Routine prompts teachers and students to begin a writing process by focusing on and discussing together an authentic purpose and audience for a piece of writing students will produce. Using a visual device called the Writing with Purpose Guide, teachers involve students in a facilitated discussion about purpose and audience, and then progress through the steps of the routine to:

• Identify and record a specific goal for their writing,
• Visualize and think about the audience for whom they are writing,
• Think critically about real-world models with similar purposes or audiences,
• Describe in their own words specific qualities their writing should include,
• Plan their writing,
• Test the effectiveness of their work,
• Reflect upon the effectiveness of their writing,
• Make adjustments to address readers’ feedback.

In a study of 37 high school students whose English language arts teachers used the Writing with Purpose Routine, medium to large statistically significant differences were found for paragraph structure, ideas, organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency, and conventions on pre and post writing assignments. Paragraph structure was measured using the SIM Paragraph Writing score sheet (Schumaker & Lyerla, 1993). Ideas, organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency, and conventions were measured with the Six Traits Writing Rubric (Education Northwest, 2018).

Mnemonic Associated with this Routine: PURPOSE – to engage students in the process of creating a piece of writing to achieve a specific purpose

Author(s):Suzanne Myers, Ed.D. and Jocelyn Washburn, Ph.D.