Students Were Graduating High School

¶ … students were graduating high school trained in the process of writing. Fast forward a few decades to the present school systems. Students are entering college with no knowledge on how to turn out a college level paper. What has happened to the standards of the past? How do we change today's teaching to help our students regain the ability to write?

As for any form of art, to develop quality one must observe quality. The art student learns by studying the form of the master artists. The drama student likewise learns by studying the different forms of theater. To follow this line of reasoning, a student of the written word would turn to the masters in print. Read, dissect, discuss.

In today's schools, there is a tendency to take writing across the curriculum instead of limiting it to a language arts class. This will give the student different forms of writing to observe, and in the beginning, to imitate. We write papers in English class, science class, and even art class. For the college level student, this brings writing into all forms of study: psychology, archeology, and history. Taking writing to this level is a positive step to make it a natural process for the student. So where do we start in teaching the process of writing?

As mentioned above, to begin, the student needs to observe the masters. This gives him the opportunity to see successful style. It is not only the research journals that need to be read, but contemporary literature and the classics of the past. By reading the variety of styles and techniques available, the student will become immersed in words. Now, that he is surrounded by what works in society, it is time to take it a step further.

From this step, some free writing should begin. Have the learner begin a journal. This journal is a free-style record of writing not to be graded except that it is done. In different subjects, the instructor may assign different topics. That is the only possible guideline. The student is to write for writing sake. The process of getting words on paper without any sense of being judged will free up the creative writing process. Journal writing time may be assigned the first ten minutes of the class period, or assigned for homework each evening with a minimum number required for the week.

With this process, the student, who is still reading the masters, will begin to emulate them while beginning the process of creating his own voice. The style of the journal will become increasingly organized. There will be paragraph development and themes emerging. During this journaling process, students will display a growing understanding of the subject they are studying. During this journaling time, there is professional growth. Critical thinking skills can develop. The student can review the record as time passes and see their progress (Hiemstra, 2001).

The instructor now has his student writing. The student has a lessening stress level concerning the subject as he is writing without judgment. The creativity of the student is beginning to flow. Now the instructor can take the writing process to the next step. The student can now begin to write for his fellow students. There is grading at this stage, but the expectations are less formal than if the writing were for the instructor. The ease of language is to flow naturally as if the students were talking to each other. The writer can begin to answer teacher-directed questions at this stage. He can answer them to the student who is to be reading his writing. Peer-reviewed papers give the students a chance to be editor. It will also lead them to a stronger awareness of their own writing weaknesses.

As the students have already been reading the masters, they know good writing when they read it. At this stage, the student may not be able to analyze exactly what is wrong with the presenting paper. This will give the instructor an opportunity to discuss the mechanics of writing, how to look deeper into the form beyond grammar to the ordering and thought process involved. At the same time, the teacher is displaying what is expected in a more formal type of writing, with the instructor as the audience. Audience views can also be discussed at this time.

The students have written their first draft. The teacher tells them that after the peer review, they will take the suggested comments and rewrite the paper. This step is another step in the writing process. As the students are learning the process, it is natural with less stress. At the same time, the instructor can continue exposing the students to the masters but in another way. As mentioned above, the teacher is there to answer questions from the students about possible errors in the writing. During the time, the students can spend a portion of their time in examining sentence build from different styles of writing. From this writing, they can have assignments where they clarify their knowledge of the rudiments of grammar, such as subject, predicate, noun, and verb, etc. This can be done using the writings to which they have already been exposed. This takes their understanding to a deeper level. It is as if they are examining the bricks by which the school was built. The time spent on this part of class need not be more than five to ten minutes a session.

These steps teach the process of writing, the process of discovery through language. We use the language to discover our world (Murray, 1997). In the beginning the writers may only catch the mechanical mistakes. As they study the masters, they will develop a stronger ability to look beyond form to meaning. The student will look at the writing as a whole to see where sentences need to be rearranged or dropped, words that need to be added.

The next step is the paper with the teacher as the audience. The students have accomplished the goals of learning the mechanics. They are comfortable in the written word. Writer's block problems know how to be solved. Writing becomes a process to express the deepest thoughts of the individual. Although in a classroom, there are differing abilities, all are confident they can reach the personal goals each has set in regard to writing. Each student knows they can "get the point across" by the written word.