Developing Writers: How Teachers Can Instill a Love of Writing in their Students

It is essential to understand that classes taken in grade school do not give students a full understanding of each subject. With the topic of writing, there will always be a new lesson to learn, an aspect to improve, or a differing way to explain. Author Craig Vetter states in Bonehead Writing, “This is your enemy: a perfectly empty sheet of paper. Nothing will ever happen here except what you make happen.” Each story, essay, or response comes from a writer’s experiences. With each attempt at a new piece comes an underlying story of emotions the writer is facing. Each person’s writing is unique and the ideas people have are related to their past experiences and what they believe to be familiar with when deciding which writing style to use. As a high school student, I have learned many things about writing that helped me become the improved writer I am today, but the most essential advice I have received is practice makes perfect. Although there is no actual perfect way of writing, I have discovered that each essay I write, my writing improves. It is easier to spot mistakes, find areas to improve, and ponder elevated word choice to use.

Murray is insightful not only to instructors but also to learners. Murray argues that the challenge facing writing is the fact that teachers have treated it as a product rather than a process and the same concept passed on to students. The author holds that the main problem with this view is that students get to receive irrelevant criticisms that are not related to their learning goals. While I tend to agree with the author based on the arguments presented, it is notable that Murray has paid little attention to the idea of education in the contemporary world. In most learning institutions, the outcome of the writing is considered more than the process. As a teacher paying attention to the process of writing but not be consistent with the students, who are mostly driven by

To many people, writing is either considered a task, or an activity. There are also different types of writing for people to enjoy. In Josh Keller’s “Studies Explore Wether the Internet Makes Students Better Writer”, Keller describes how the internet has made students far better writers. He also describes how many students have described their dislike for academic writing but prefer their own personal blogging and/or journaling. This essay describes why struggling students often fail to write effectively because they find academic writing hard because they are not able to put their own thoughts and experiences into their essay. The idea of this essay was to describe the problems with students writing and the possible solutions for the problem. Keller mentions that the solution, that is not being pursued, is to combine academic writing with personal writing. He describes how many students write far better in their own personal writing and that these student’s personal writing

In the article “Best Practices in Teaching Writing”, Charles Whitaker outlines eight points on helping students succeed as writers. The first

Everyone knows what writing is to one extent or another, but we all have different definitions of how it should be done and varying degrees of seriousness about the art. We all have a process of writing, but each is unique to ourselves and our own experiences. Annie Dillard and Stephen King are two well known authors who have published many pieces, two of which describe how they view the writing process and let their readers get a peek of what goes on through their minds when they write. These two pieces are Dillard’s The Writing Life and King’s “What Writing Is.”

Teachers, parents, and friends often tell students exactly what the writing process should entail and how long it should take. However, the older I get, the more I realize that the writing process varies not only from person to person, but also from one writing project to the next. Throughout my years of life, I have written countless papers, ranging from a persuasive speech to an extensive research paper, and each project requires an altered version of my personal writing process. While each individual has his own writing process, there can be many similarities between different writing processes. Finding one’s individual writing process takes trial, error, and repetition. When an individual finally uncovers his unique writing process, better thought, work, and writing is produced.

Cynthia Haven is the writer of an article called “The New Literacy: Stanford study finds richness and complexity in students' writing” that is a study based on the amount of writing college students do. She followed students at Stanford during their undergraduate years and the first year after that. She discovered that today’s students are writing more than any generation before it. Cynthia had the students she was studying submit all of the writing they did, academic or personal. She found that only 62 percent of the work submitted to her was for classes; the rest of the material was “Life writing”.

Kelly Gallagher discusses how to promote students’ writing in chapter four of Teaching Adolescent Writers. Gallagher assesses his students’ writing from the beginning to know where his classroom stands: “Each of my thirty-eight freshman students completed a timed writing piece on the second day of school and turned them in without their names on the papers” (73). This allowed Gallagher to assess his classroom as a whole instead of as individuals. He took this writing and sorted into piles he assumed were “heavy readers (defined as those who frequently read for fun),… moderate readers, and… light readers” (73). Gallagher based these predictions on the diction, sentence structure and variety, essay development, craft, and punctuation and editing skills (74). As Gallagher asserts, these predictions are not entirely accurate, but they allowed him to understand that the majority of heavy readers are skilled writers because they have an underlying foundation for their writing in their reading. This does not mean that all good readers are good writers. Gallagher asserts, “Reading alone does not explain why some of my readers write well and others don’t” (75). He goes on to create a formula explaining that reading paired with an “exposure to intensive hands-on writing instruction” lead to students becoming better

I have never been an excellent student and perennially struggled with English, Math, and Science growing up. These subjects would cast a pall over my day and school work. Anxiety would well up inside of me which often resulted with me passed out across my desk sleeping through parts of class. When I would return home at day’s end, I rarely completed my homework. When I did try to complete homework, it often ended in tears of frustration or the hurling of a book across the room. Taking this class has helped to quell a portion of that anxiety and frustration. It was a grueling class, seemingly impossible at times, but taking this class has given me the confidence to know that not only can I finish the class if I work hard but can also excel! Writing is something that I will exercise throughout my college curriculum and my life. It will help to convey my ideas to the instructor, peers, bosses, and co-workers. In my college curriculum, it will also show my instructors that I’m learning the information provided and how to apply that knowledge appropriately. It will allow me to complete assignments, discussions, and reports, and I will also apply writing in basic communication when necessary.

In his essay, "Teach Writing as a Process not a Product," Donald Murray outlines the major difference between the traditional pedagogy that directed the teaching of writing in the past and his newly hailed model. Traditionally, Murray explains, English teachers were taught to teach and evaluate students' writing as if it was a finished product of literature when, as he has discovered, students learn better if they're taught that writing is a process. For Murray, once teachers regard writing as a process, a student-centered, or writer-centered, curriculum falls into place. Rules for writing fall by the way side as writers work at their own pace to see what works best for

Christine Love Thompson discusses strategies that she believes are the foundation to “good” writing in the article, “A Dose of Writing Reality: Helping Students Become Better Writers.” Thompson discovers that it is not correct spelling and grammar that makes a “good” writer; it is the voice of the student. She uses sources to support her claim that methods such as using graphic organizers and her constantly making corrections are not as effective as they seem. Thompson organizes the article to ensure better understanding of the process she went through to help her students become better writers.

Writing not only reflects on one’s credibility in literacy, but also how America’s school system has failed students at writing in English courses. As a student, I would describe my writing as “honest, but complex”. For as long as I can remember, writing was always a tool that allowed a person to eloquently express his or her opinions, and analyze writing prompts given by teachers at school. Today, most students in English class solely attempt at getting a good grade rather than thoroughly understanding grammar and writing. Moreover, a solution for this would be allowing more English teachers at school to come together to improve the emphasis on proper language learning as well as the value of writing.

Writing can be an intimidating process for students. Once students complete a draft of writing, they often what to be done with it, and not have to revisit aspects of it. As teachers, we need to find ways to encourage writing, and revising. Responding to Student Writing: What does research tell us claims that teachers must respond to students’ purpose, context, and organization before editing other aspects of writing. This strategy focuses on the content and clarity of the writing, rather than nit-picking details. Content and clarity are typically the main focuses on writing effectively, so we want to help students establish these skills before focusing on anything else. Praising, Questioning, Wishing focuses on having a conversation about

It’s a typical October in Davis in the year of 2015, and you’re an eager, impatient first-year student enrolled in the writing program of university. You’ve been telling yourself that you must be a sponge and absorb whatever there is to learn, but so far you haven’t been satisfied with anything you have written. Your “Recycled” file is overflowing with false starts. One moment you feel defeated, the next, exhilarated. Every piece of writing matters too much, or too little. You’re in a hurry to get on with grown-up college life. You type too quickly and read too slowly. You tell yourself that for every window you’ve ever looked through, there’s a story to tell. Every night when closing your laptop screen you start to think about one question: How do I really want my writing to be? To reveal both of my personality and voice? Or to show how I perceive the audience? How do people really think of my writing?

Anyone who has ever taken any kind of writing or English class, in either a high school or college setting knows the difference between a challenging teacher that helps his or her students learn and a chill teacher that doesn 't teach his or her students anything. Many students would probably prefer to have a strict teacher who genuinely helps them learn from their mistakes and improve their writing in general, especially if these students are planning to go on to college. These future college students also typically go to their challenging teacher for more criticism and advice in order to improve their writing skills. This simple interaction between student and teacher leads to a co-constituent relationship.