Cohesive writing, the product

I liked Jago's five day writing plan, however, I don't think that it fits different writing methods. My biggest problem is having students come up with a thesis statement on the first day, although it may be revised. I say this because I have a hard time writing that way. Students do need to have a clear idea of what they are going to write about and how to keep it organized. I often will gather my evidence and outline my essay first. I then analyze what I have gathered and see what fits together. This helps me understand what it is that I am trying to argue. Then I can formulate a thesis. I often write my introduction after I have drafted my essay.

I also know that their are procrastinators that simply prefer to write under pressure. I think that the timed draft writing in class is a great way to motivate students. I really believe that it doesn't matter how many weeks you give students to work on an essay, many will do it the night before. Often this method has worked for me, but many students can't write well, because they have no time for revision.

One important step that Jago has that many teachers ignore, is offering a lesson on recurring mistakes. I think that it is important for the teacher to go through the paper before the student revises. If the student hands in a final draft that still could use revising, I think that the teacher should allow the student to revise that work to get a better grade. Realistically many final drafts will be a student's first draft, that they printed and turned in. This extra step may be extra work, but it would provide the students with another chance to revise, which often takes more than just one or two tries.