For some students, writing comes easily. It’s something they learn with a minimum of fuss, but others struggle with it. They find each sentence, sometimes each word, painful and difficult. For them, writing an essay is like giving birth without the pain relief or the joy of having created something beautiful when they’re done. I’ve found seven easy tips to help my struggling students both write better and feel better about writing.
Examples. It’s hard to write well without seeing good writing first. Regular sample papers can be overwhelming for some students. Break it down. I like to create examples out of their work. If they have a problem with parallel structure, I show where it isn’t parallel and then offer different ways to make it parallel.
Praise. There’s always something good. APA format. An awesome source they found. An idea. The way a sentence is phrased. Find it. Tell them.
Clear and repeated instructions. I go over assignments in the weekly announcements and seminar. Including the original assignment area, that’s three different spots students have a chance to ask for clarification in live time, just in case.
Rules. There are rules to writing. Yes, every rule has at least one exception, but if you can share them with your students, even if it’s just through a quick Word document posted to the doc sharing area, it can offer a grounding they wouldn’t otherwise have.
Follow up. This is true of all classes, but I find that writing intimidates students. Grammar, spelling, format, punctuation—it’s a lot for some students to deal with, so it’s always good to follow‐up. If a student is struggling, send an email or offer to call.
Options. Going back to rules, there are often right and wrong answers. But there are also options. I have students who send me five emails a day, each one trying to perfect their thesis sentence. I attempt to see what they’re trying to say, and then give them options of how to phrase their own statements.
Understanding. We all work hard and family emergencies happen. I gave birth with two weeks left in a class I was taking. My mother went into the hospital and died two weeks later when I was three weeks into teaching a class. (I always tell my students that life gets in the way of school.) Sometimes it’s necessary to flex a bit more than we’d like to and accommodate things. I’m not suggesting lowering standards, but simply being understanding. I know I appreciated the understanding I received from my teacher when I was giving birth and from my class when I was in mourning.
Maybe none of these tips will make a student an A+ writer or rush into his or her next composition assignment, but it may help ease the pain and make it slightly more bearable. If these tips make students want to write just a bit more, and if we all do our part, maybe by the time our students finish their degrees, they’ll write better and feel better about their writing.
Katherine Sanger is a professor in the Composition Department at Kaplan University.
[This article was originally published in our August, 2009 issue.]
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