1.   Know your purpose, audience, and form.  In the Cedar Way newsletter, the audience is fixed: it is mostly parents of students at Cedar Way.  The purpose changes with each letter.  Sometimes it is to inform about policies.  Sometimes it is to influence parenting practices.  The form is determined by the purpose and audience.  Usually, the form is a letter.  Sometimes it is a list. 

2.   Bring it through the five steps of the writing process.  Pre-write: scribble your idea on a napkin, make an outline, or draw a mental-map.  Draft: write on lined paper, skip spaces, and forget spelling.  Revise: move passages around, add and take away words, make it clearer.  Edit: make sure that conventions like spelling and punctuation are correct.  Publish: put your work into a form that is suited to your audience, purpose, and form.

3.   Think about the six traits of quality writing.  "Ideas" are topics or approaches that are interesting.  "Organization" helps the reader follow the ideas.  "Voice" describes the way a piece is written; it's feeling and mood.  "Word choice" challenges students to avoid thing, stuff, and cool.  "Sentence fluency" ensure that each sentence is easy to read.  "Conventions" address the components of standard written English, such as punctuation and spelling.