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IDEAS  ORGANIZATION   VOICE   WORD CHOICE   SENTENCE FLUENCY   CONVENTIONS The Six Traits of Writing was developed over time by many different contributors of whom had one goal in mind: To establish a common vocabulary that writers use as they craft interesting and informative prose. Research conducted in the 1960's by Paul Diederich (Measuring Growth In English, 1974) provided the inspiration for the development of the Six Traits. Diederich assembled a group of writers, editors, attorneys, business executives, and English, natural science, and social science teachers and asked them to read an array of student essays, and rank them into three groups: effective, somewhat effective, and problematic. When they rank ordered the essays, they wrote anecdotal notes to express their rationale for the ranking. These notes were very telling in that they all commented on the exact same qualities of writing---ideas, organizational structure, voice and tone, and mechanics. Diederich's work then inspired a group of teachers from Beaverton, Oregon and a writing consultant, Vicki Spandel, to use this same strategy for grading and create a scoring guide that could be used throughout their district. And thus, in 1984 the Six Traits scoring guide was born.
 * What are the 6 + 1 Traits of Writing**

3 Values Six Traits Provides

 * 1) Common Language
 * 2) Consistency in assessment
 * 3) The "how-to" students need to revise

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Weblink Resources
[|OWL: Six Traits] Resources for teaching with the Six Traits, including anchor posters! [|Pete's PowerPoints: 6 Traits Page] Pete's Power Points is a database prepared for teachers by a teacher with ready to use presentations for an array of topics. This link takes you directly to the page focused on the traits. [|6 Traits Tools]Website created by a teacher with a variety of teaching tools such as strategy lessons, picture books, anchor posters, anchor papers and more! [|Education Northwest: 6+1 Trait® Writing] [|Interactive Six Trait Page] [|Writing Fix: Traits] [|Six Traits Unit] [|Great Source iwrite: The Six Traits of Effective Writing] [|Writer's Workshop]