alaine-gordon
Writing is an incredibly important skill for us to have. Not only does nearly every line of work require that we write, there are also a huge number of personal, mental and physical benefits to writing. For that reason, we want to get our students past this impasse.
Here are some tips to help them do exactly that.
A lot of kids will assume that because they can’t write texts like Hemingway today, they will never be able to write like him. Disabuse them of this notion. Explain to them that writing might include talent but is ultimately a skill they have to practice to get better.
So sure, the words they’re putting down might not say what they want them to. They might even be clumsy and as sharp as a rock. But that does not mean that this will always be so. If they practice, they will get better.
Also, make sure they focus on the act of writing and not the words on the page. Perhaps compare it to riding a bike. Nobody focuses on individual bike rides. They focus on the act of getting better at riding bikes. It’s the same with writing.
Often, students struggle to create essays because the choices are far too broad. They have too many options and as a result can’t make a decision. It’s a bit like the psychology of the tyranny of choice. Too many options make us afraid we’ll choose wrong, so be become scared to choose.
A great way around that is to give them writing prompts and then ask them to write a text based on that. The best idea is to give them a few choices – three or four – and then let them pick one and write from that perspective.
After they’ve had a few tries, you can ask them to come up with their own writing prompts. Collect these together, group them in ways that different interests still get to write about something they like (not everybody wants to write about killer robots taking over the city, for example) and give them to your class.
Most of the time students aren’t writing essays for themselves, they’re writing them for you. They want to please you and make sure you’re happy. The thing is, that’s generally not going to make them very interested in the topic.
Teach them to explore the topic and find an angle or an idea that they find interesting and then write about that. The great thing about this strategy is that they can actually become quite enthusiastic, which will make the writing interesting to them and – just as importantly – to you as well.
Keep the other essays that they’ve written on hand and compare back to them. Okay sure, it is extra work but it’s worth it. For by pointing out how they’re improving, they will notice and will also have the satisfaction of knowing that you’ve noticed.
And once they start to realize that they’re getting better and that their words are becoming more interesting, your well on your way to make sure that your students actually enjoy writing. From there it’s only a hop, skip and a jump until they’re writing for professional writing services. After all, when they enjoy writing they’ll do it on their own at which point their skills will start to improve exponentially.
Often, writing longer texts is incredibly difficult for beginning writers. So why not focus on shorter ones? Perhaps start with one of the most famous short stories of all:
For sale: baby shoes, never worn.
Discuss with them what this story says. Then challenge them to write a short story for themselves. Maybe one of a paragraph or half a page. The advantage of these lengths is that they can then struggle with the words to their heart content and still get the job done in time. Also, this will teach them how sometimes parts of the story are told between the words.
