The Six Traits of Writing

IdeasOrganization

VoiceSentence Fluency

Word ChoiceConventions

Ideas

• Ideas that writers use should be powerful and significant.

• Details that writers include should be interesting, specific, and descriptive.

• It should be clear that the writer has a lot of insight into the topic.

Organization

• Organization should be logical and effective.• The beginning should be captivating and

engaging. The reader should immediately be drawn in and want to read further.

• The middle pulls the reader along while flowing smoothly. The ideas are all connected together and can be easily followed.

• The ending leaves the reader thinking.

Voice

• Voice is the ability to have the writer’s personality show through the writing.

• It is individual, unique (just like a person) and appropriate to the topic and audience.

• Voice allows the writer to express feelings and emotions and enables the reader to feel them.

Sentence Fluency

• Sentences sound smooth and expressive when read aloud.

• The length of sentences varies. Some are short, some are long, some are in-between.

• The sentences begin in different ways or are structured differently internally (use of sentence formulas).

Word Choice

• Specific, vivid, precise words are used.• The best way to state something is how you

write.• Word choice creates pictures in the readers’

minds (sensory details).

Conventions

• All conventions are correct and communicative.• Proper nouns and beginnings of sentences are

capitalized. Everything else is not.• All words are spelled correctly.• All punctuation marks are placed (commas,

periods, apostrophes, quotation marks, semi-colons, etc.).

• Verb tenses are consistent.