Internet in English composition and communication

English Comp Internet

Writing instruction has been a in the limelight for many years, as reading and writing are intrinsically linked to one another and as reading scores decline so do writing scores and ultimately abilities.

The Nation's Report Card (National Center for Education Statistics, 1998), based on the 1996 NAEP data, suggested that writing achievement at grades 8 and 12 was positively associated with writing instruction. More specifically, achievement gains were noted when students were asked to refine their writing over several drafts (National Center for Education Statistics). (Fisher & Frey, 2003, p. 396)

How to improve national reading and writing scores has been challenging the education system for a long time. The concerns are often associated with the inability of individuals to function in a business writing environment that demands skill and decisive writing abilities. This is not to mention that many people see failures in writing skills as prime example of the manner in which the education system has failed students on a core level.

Many people think of writing as an essentially difficult task that requires decisive skill and innate talent, which most people and especially students do not believe they possess. This dysfunctional view of writing frequently creates an essential barrier to student success. Kim Steele on her decisive but simplistic website succinctly describes a writing timeline, which she has successfully used to break down larger assignments for students into essential steps that she then grades independent of the final project. (Steele, 2008, NP) This tactic, though it would seem rigid, essentially describes to students the writing process as a staged process with specific goals that move the student forward to a final draft. In short the exercise provides daily writing instruction, rather than assignments without instruction or systematic guidance.

The tactic of breaking writing into segmented and discrete separate functions is supported by many other writing instruction sources and sites. The UCLA Office of Instructional Development offers this very advice to new writing instructors and teaching assistants. The teach2write website suggests that the writing process be broken down into several separate functions that stress prompt (the assigned task itself), conception of thesis (including brainstorming), draft writing etc. To work toward the final stage which is revision, in much the same manner as Steele. (UCLA OID, 2005, NP) the Mayfield Handbook of Technical and Science Writing also support creating a timeline for the management of writing projects, very similar to Steele's but decidedly more detailed. ("The Writing Timeline," 2001, NP) One last example Rio Salado College Online, also instructs students to break writing projects into discrete aspects of the process of writing. The opening line of the work profoundly stating that the "real art of writing is rewriting," which demonstrates again that writing is a process that demands not innate abilty or talent but decisive and developed skills.

Patthey-Chavez, Matsumura & Valdes in a comprehensive research study conducted in middle school classrooms suggest that writing instruction and outcomes will improve significantly if teachers are given more instruction as to how to teach writing in comprehensive manner. These researchers also suggest a process method of writing instruction that breaks down the components of writing to elements that are tangible to the emergent writer.

2004, p. 462) to reiterate this point, it is clear from a large body of the research and from legitimate instructional websites that writing should be a process that is broken down into parts, so the whole can become more complete and more logically organized.

Kuriloff stresses that with the changes in technology, writing instruction does not have to be as labor intensive and therefore as expensive as it has been in the past with the constancy of daily instruction handed out by a single instructor. Kuriloff suggests that with the use of technology systems can be created that mirror the intensive and intimate writing instruction of the past. (Kuriloff, 2004) Steele's rather simple writing timeline could actually serve as an adequate template for a program that might do something of this nature. According to Fisher & Frey; students benefited from daily writing instruction. In other words, students need a connected and coordinated literacy curriculum -- one that has a significant emphasis on writing instruction. With new accountability systems focused on writing and the needs of struggling readers, limiting instruction to reading will likely not result in the desired outcomes. (Fisher & Frey, 2003, p. 396)

There is little that demands that all the instruction be given by a single teacher. In fact the supplementation of writing instruction directly from a teacher by a timeline program that guided progress of a package/driven writing assignment could be very fruitful.

Fisher & Frey point out that students often benefit in unexpected ways from processes such as journaling, (Fisher & Frey, 2003, p. 396) which can bee seen as a first brainstorming session, where students express their ideas and then narrow their ideas to a single topic. (Steele, 2008, NP) if the process of writing was more guided and offered both intrinsic and extrinsic rewards, such as the scoring and direct interaction functions of the Steele proposal more writing would likely take place in a functional way. Another manner in which to motivate students in a systematic writing style is through the utilization of portfolio compilation. (Campbell, 2002, p. 42) Though Steele does not specifically mention this as an aspect of her writing timeline the process could serve as a basis for the development of a record of writing progress, from brainstorming to 1st draft to final revision. Each of these stages is a demonstrative and insightful example of the "system" or "process" that culminates to make a final writing piece. Campbell expresses the overall success of a writing course directed through portfolio production;

Overall, the level of enthusiasm was very high, both inside and outside the classroom. The course was a joy to teach, as students seemed very focused and keen to learn and to produce the best documents they could. The amount of staff-student interaction outside of class in relation to the production of the documents also showed that students took their portfolios seriously. (Campbell, 2002, p. 42)