Six Traits of Writing
The traits are not new. A trait can be defined as a quality or characteristic critical to successful performance. Just as there are traits for good ice skating, like balance, grace, technical skill and so on, there are traits for good writing. The traits for good writing include ideas, organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency, and conventions. Traits give the writer a clear picture of what to do to revise their writing - making it the best it can be.
The Six Trait Writing Model helps students understand what is working well and what needs to be improved in their writing. The traits give teachers a focus for their writing instruction. The traits give all a common language for talking about and celebrating writing.
We want students to transfer the writing skills they have developed in their language arts classes to writing whenever it’s used, not just within their language arts experience.
The Six Trait model breaks down writing performance into a manageable group of teachable and assessable skills.