Connecticut State Department of Education

Teacher of the Year Ceremony
Due to inclement weather, the Teacher of the Year Ceremony has been postponed to December 16, 2025 from 5-7pm. Doors will open at 4pm. The Ceremony will take place at the Bushnell Theater in Hartford, and the order of events will remain the same.

The Writing Rope

Diagram titled Skilled Writing showing five colored strands twisted together: Critical Thinking, Syntax, Text Structure, Writing Craft, and Transcription.
The Writing Rope diagram illustrates five interwoven strands that represent the key components of skilled writing: Critical Thinking, Syntax, Text Structure, Writing Craft, and Transcription.

The Writing Rope, developed by Joan Sedita in 2019, is a comprehensive framework designed to identify the multiple components necessary for skilled writing. While considering Scarborough’s Reading Rope, the Writing Rope organizes writing instruction into five interwoven components: critical thinking, syntax, text structure, writing craft, and transcription skills. Each strand of the rope represents a crucial element of skilled writing, and together they reflect the interconnected nature of the writing process. The Writing Rope serves as both a conceptual model and a guide for building student proficiency in writing across all grade levels and content areas.

The Writing Rope Strands

  • Critical Thinking: Focuses on the awareness of the writing process, background knowledge development, and critical thinking skills. Includes explicit instruction in brainstorming strategies, note taking, graphic organizers, and editing/revising.
  • Syntax: The study and understanding of grammar and sentence structure. Supports not only writing but also listening and reading comprehension. Instruction includes sentence elaboration and combining.
  • Text Structure: Provides a blueprint for text organization. Includes narrative, informational, and opinion structures, as well as paragraph development. Explicit instruction helps students comprehend and produce well-organized writing.
  • Writing Craft: Encompasses word choice, awareness of task, audience, and purpose, and the use of literary devices such as plot, character, theme, and figurative language.
  • Transcription: Covers the basic skills of spelling, handwriting, and keyboarding. As fluency develops, students can shift attention to higher-order writing skills.

References

  • National Assessment of Educational Progress. (2019). Reading assessment. Retrieved from https://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/reading/
  • Scarborough, H. S. (2001). Connecting early language and literacy to later reading (dis)abilities: Evidence, theory, and practice. In S. Neuman & D. Dickinson (Eds.), Handbook for research in early literacy (pp. 97–110). New York, NY: Guilford Press.
  • Sedita, J. (2019). The Writing Rope: The strands that are woven into skilled writing. Keys to Literacy.
  • Sedita, J. (2023). The Writing Rope: A framework for explicit writing instruction in all subjects. Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co.
  • The nation’s report card: Writing 2011. Retrieved from https://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/pubs/main2011/2012470.asp