• Extended writing activities are a unique form of education.boy writes to writing-books image by Stepanov from Fotolia.com
  
  Writing is a lone profession, a skill within a larger career or part of a therapeutic exercise which allows the writer to express herself in a novel way. However, writing regularly and for extended periods of time must be carried out to feel the full benefits of writing. There are a number of extended writing activities you can do when teaching writing skills or encouraging people to express themselves.
  
  

Free Write for a Set Time

• Instructing students to write for a set amount of time is one of the simplest extended writing activities. Set a timer for anywhere between 15 to 30 minutes and direct students to write about whatever is on their mind. The one rule with this activity is that students must write until the timer goes off. To add to this activity, have students read what they have written to discourage anyone from not taking the assignment seriously. Doing this may keep one or two from writing about what is really on their minds, as it may be very personal.
  
  

Writing, Editing and Revising Activities

• Writing about specific topics and then revising them in one sitting is another beneficial extended writing activity. Present a topic to the class and have them write about it for a set amount of time, ranging from 15 to 20 minutes. Assign each student a partner for this exercise, and when the writing is complete, the pairs exchange their pieces to be read, edited and returned to the original writer. Then students revise what they wrote based on their partner's edits and turn the assignment in at the end of class. Students are then graded not only on the finished product, but also on the changes they made to their partner's essay and the revisions made to their own.
  
  

Record the Weekend

• In this extended writing activity, students are instructed to chronicle their weekend, an assignment that requires them to write outside the teacher's direct instruction. Each subject they write on should be a set number of words--perhaps 250-300. The goal is to have them stay in the habit of writing but not be burdened by the assignment. Let them know they can write on any topic but it must be something that occurred over the course of their weekend and the writing must be expressive.