How to Writing: Illustrate and Publish

Lesson Plan - Get It!

Audio:

Good authors engage their readers.

That doesn't mean they marry them; it means they work hard to get their readers interested and keep them interested. One of the easiest ways to do that is to make sure your writing makes sense and is free of errors. Re-reading your work can eliminate many errors in the areas of spelling, punctuation, capitalization, and grammar.

Watch Editing & Revising, by Nichole Carter, to learn the differences between — and techniques for — editing and revising:

The second-easiest way to make sure that you keep your reader interested is to use illustrations and graphics. Authors select graphics that support the text and provide further explanation for the reader. For example, if you are writing a "how to" piece about how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, providing an image of the supplies needed next to the list of supplies might help to engage the reader. When selecting or drawing an illustration, you must be sure that it matches the step and provides further explanation.

• For example, if you were writing a "how to" piece of writing about how to build a snowman, what illustrations might be helpful for your reader?

Discuss that idea with your parent or teacher now and write down a list.

• What illustrations did you come up with?

Some answers you came up with might be

• a hat
• snow
• a large round snowball
• a medium round snowball
• a small round snowball
• a carrot

Great brainstorming!

In the Got It? section of this lesson, you are going to write a "how to" piece. You will plan your writing using a graphic organizer. You will include transitional words and phrases, an introduction, and a conclusion. Finally, you will re-read your work to make sure it is error-free and you will select or create appropriate graphics.

Go on to the Got It! section to see if you got it!