Talk for writing is a way of supporting the improvement of children's writing.

It develops their ability to 'read as writers' and enables them to explore the thinking and creative processes involved in generating and planning ideas and incorporating techniques learned from other writers into their own work.

It further allows children to rehearse the structure and sequence of a piece of writing and guides how the text should sound - its style and voice. It also encourages them to generate and rehearse appropriate language and grammar as they work collaboratively to plan, draft and improve their writing.

Talk for Writing covers the following five areas:

Writer-talk

Word and language games

For experienced writers, many of the creative and thinking processes involved in writing are internal and automatic. For example, many writers can hold an internal dialogue with themselves about the possible effectiveness of alternative language choices. However, for developing writers, it is very helpful if these processes can be made explicit and explored through talk in a supportive learning context. It is this developmental exploration, through talk, of the thinking and creative processes involved in being a writer that we are calling Talk for writing.