Category Archives: Effective Writing

Inspiring Better Writers

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One of the biggest problems facing English teachers is how to inspire our students to be better writers.  It may seem like a bit of an uphill battle on most days, but I think it is a battle that we can win as long as we remain creative in our strategy.   I’ve explained before my lack of expertise and how grammar-challenged I am.  To say that I stink at grammar is an understatement, but I understand the value in knowing the basic rules which need to be followed (and, unlike some of my students, I understand that there are actually rules!)  I have a love for creative writing and logical rhetoric- my bookshelf is covered with everything from classic fiction to Aristotle’s Poetics with C.S. Lewis’ The Great Divorce somewhere in between.  I am a style junkie- no matter how good the content of a paper is, if it doesn’t flow well or it doesn’t read well, then much of the strength of the paper is lost.

The key to inspiring a student to write better is to help the student step away from the words on the paper and see it differently.  In the battle against really poor writing, I suggest a “Shock and Awe” approach of breaking out the whole arsenal and attacking the paper from every angle.  By going at a paper with many tools from many different perspectives, students can see their papers in ways they may have not previously thought to look at them.  Before Web 2.0 and the abundance of Internet-based tools, I would read my papers out loud, record myself with a small tape recorder, and have someone else read it to me just to try to catch places I might stumble while reading.  With access to the Internet, these tools make the process more effective and creative.  Creating a checklist that aligns with the rubric helps the kids to concretely see what is being expected of them, but using these tools and more will help them to approach their writing altogether differently.

See it differently…
Help the students to see their paper differently by showing it differently.  Wordle creates tag clouds of any text or website and shows it as an image (I’ve written on Wordle before as others have).  Text appears in various sizes and style depending on frequency.  Words that are more frequently used appear larger and bolder while those that are infrequently used are smaller.   By copying and pasting the paper into Wordle you can see what words are commonly used (or abused).  For example, if a student were writing a paper on Nazi Concentration Camps, you should see certain words more frequently (war, hatred, Nazi, Jews, etc.).  If when the tag cloud is created the word “America” appears larger than “Jews” or “Nazi” then the focus of the paper may be wrong.  Also, if words such as “like” are HUGE, then like you know the like student like used it like way too like often.  (See how this posting would look on Wordle.)

Hear it differently…
Read the Words is a great site that lets you upload a document (rich text, Word, PDF, etc), and have it read it for the students.  Students can export the files as a MP3s so they can save their reading on their computer or MP3 player/ iPod and listen to it offline.  What used to be free, no longer is, but at $50 a year for a premium account, this might fit into many teacher’s budget.  You can also have students create a free account which will let them create 3 readings, but they cannot delete the recordings so it is a bit limiting.  There are other sites that convert text to speech and some operating systems have it as a built in feature.  Another option would be to use a program such as Audacity and record the students reading their papers aloud so they can hear themselves and possibly hear places where the flow of the text isn’t working so well.

See editing differently…
Using the “Track Changes” feature in Word or similar features that other word processors use (even using the collaborative features of Google Docs, Microsoft’s Office Live Workspace, Acrobat.com, and even a web-based site like a Wiki) helps the student to see who made the changes.  Another great option is a program that is in beta called Text Flow.  Similar to “Track Changes,” but better it allows you to add multiple versions of a document and see who made what changes and where.  Collaborative and group editing has been used forever, but Text Flow makes it much easier to organize.

Everyone is creative- some are more creative in different ways than others, but by nature we are creative beings.  Some are artistically and some are scientifically creative.  Some are abstract while others are more logical in their creativeness.  Some kids are not their most creative when writing the words on the paper, but if given the chance to see the document differently, their creativity will grow and their writing will improve.  What ways do you bring out creativity in your students?

Didn’t your mama teach you better?

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While skimming through my feeds (okay, so I’m cleaning out my feeds again since there are over 1000 of them, again), I saw that a number of postings were coming from Edutopia and other sources that focused on the issue of Netiquette.  I’ve had a number of teachers all ask me about this over the past couple of years and I find it interesting how we approach this differently.

Years back I realized that I had a few “personalities.”  I’m not talking about the crazy, shave my head and cover it with peanut butter while I run around talking to myself personalities (although I’ve never fully ruled that out).  I’m talking about how everything about me shifts depending on who I’m with.  For example, while sitting in my English courses, my grammar was intact and I spoke what I would call “normally.”  When I would go purchase parts from David’s Used Parts Yard for my 1970 Chevy Nova my grammar would slip and I’d start dropping letters off the ends of words.  The way I figured it was if I were buying parts at David’s yard, ol’ Dave would have a greater respect for me if I showed up in a T-shirt and jeans and let my drawl loose rather than if I showed up in a suit speaking the King’s English.

I think the same thing goes for our students- email and social networks promote an informal connection between people that may not exist in the classroom.  When I ran a discussion forum for my class I noticed how all my students spoke to me as an equal rather than as their teacher.  They were much more free with what they would tell me whereas they were hesitant to discuss in the classroom.  This isn’t neccesarily a bad thing, but helping our students to understand that the same etiquette rules apply in the physical world as in the virtual one, but we as educators need to also understand that those lines are constantly being blurred and even redefined.

Resources:

Poll: Should Schools Teach Students Netiquette?

Districts Weigh Benefits and Drawbacks of Setting Up Student E-Mail Accounts (Education Week)

Whatever Happened to Online Etiquette? – Pogue’s Posts – Technology – New York Times Blog

Essential online etiquette

Behaveyourself.com: Online Manners Matter (Edutopia)

Beyond Emily: Post-ing Etiquette

What did I say?

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I’ve been working on ways to teach style to young writers and I’ve been given a few great ideas over the years.  Keep in mind, I am by no means an expert- my Creative Writing degree helps me to justify my lack of grammar knowledge by obligating me to bend the rules in creative ways.  Sure, a basic understanding of the rules is necessary, but that’s about it.  My lack of grammar knowledge stems from a learning issue that I suffered from when I was younger: laziness.  Granted, there are many learning differences that cause students to suffer through agonizing years of trying to learn in an environment where they just don’t function the same as others.  I suffered through my own learning disability (at least that’s what it was called when I had it, although not quite as PC to call it that now) for years, but when it came down to the point where I had to learn to write correctly, I ended up teaching myself just enough and then skid by.  In the end my struggle with a learning difference led to (but did not cause or justify) my laziness.

So, here’s what happened: I had transferred schools and found myself in a much more academically challenging independent school my Junior year of High school.  I had skirted by on my creativity for years, but when I was faced with my first term paper I was told “You have the manual, start reading.”  I read just enough to get through that paper.  When it came time for me to chose a major, I focused in my Creative Writing- something I could do because it was how I’d taught myself to succeed.  After graduation, I became a teacher and then had to decide how to best go about teaching my students to write.  My goal was to show my students how to think, not teach them what to think, and then translate that into a cohesive argument and put that on paper.  I may not be able to teach them the mechanics of grammar, but (in my opinion) I could at least show you how to put those thoughts on paper effectively.

So now the question is, how do we teach effective rhetoric to our students?  As we have more and more digital kids coming up who are texting and IM’ing more often than they are practicing a “5 paragraph essay”.  We’re dealing with kids who if the word doesn’t have a red squiggle under it then it must be spelled correctly.  These are the kids we’re trying to get to sit down and write in-class essays.  They can’t spell, their grammar is horrid, punctuation is pathetic, and organization is non-existent.  How then do we get them to put their thoughts onto paper?

Here’s two ideas to jump start the “thinking process” but it may not help much in the grammar department:

1.  Small Sentences, Big Pictures.

Use a website like The Boston Globe‘s The Big Picture to inspire students to write.  Have the student start by writing short effective sentences.  Write one really good descriptive sentence about a picture.  Then move to two, then to a paragraph, then to 250 words, and so forth.  If you want your students to be frustrated and disappointed, have them write a paper at the beginning of a semester.  If you want the students to be proud of what they’ve created, move in slowly.

2.  Send your paragraph to the clouds.

Use a website like Wordle to create a tag cloud of the student’s paper.  Have the students type a paper and copy it into Wordle.  The site will generate a tag cloud (the one above is of my Delicious account).  This way the student can see what words they are using more often.  If a word appears more often that seems week or has nothing to do with their essay, they know they need to re-direct.

What are your ideas?  I’ll look for a few better ideas, and pass them on.

Writing Papers Good…

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Let me say on the front end that technical writing and I aren’t the best of buddies.  I am the comma splice master.  It’s like I’m playing Yahtzee with a cup full of commas- I shake them up, pour them on the paper and count them as they lie.  Sure, my undergrad was in English, but it was in creative writing.  Basically I stink so bad at those grammar rules that I had to major in the artistic justification for breaking the rules!  One thing my Creative Writing degree taught me was that the rules, when used appropriately, can help to shape the creative structure of an essay.

We spend time in school teaching the basics- where to capitalize, where to punctuate, how to make a 5 paragraph essay, but we often neglect the art of writing a strong paper- the art of rhetoric and poetics in regards to essays.  Fundamentals are important- learning your grammar rules such as how to avoid comma splices and correct usage of there, their, and they’re are key to writing intelligently.  I gave an essay exam to my New Testament Studies class where one of the answers should have been a page long.  One student gave an answer that was a page long but only two sentences- two very long, run-on sentences.  The answer was spot on correct but it took a half hour to translate his train of thought.  Had he used punctuation correctly I would have been able to follow his essay more easily.  Punctuation helps us to know when to breathe, when to pause (either momentarily or dramatically), and it helps us to develop the poetic rhythm of the work.

Learning the technical fundamentals is the first step to effective essay writing.  Learning style- strong rhetoric, poetics, and structural formation will build upon those basic rules and help our students write more effectively and persuasively.  I’ve put together a few of my style suggestions (they’re not really rules since they are in no way authoritative or absolute!):

  1. Quotes:  only use quotes that strengthen your statement, not just to take up space.  Use quotes within strong statements to make your essay stronger.
  2. Why use similes when metaphors work much better.  Why say something is like something important when it is something important?
  3. Weak words make for weak arguments.  “Personally I think that I believe that something might be important.”  Avoid using words such as “I think,” or “I believe,” rather say “it is.”
  4. Don’t write like you talk.  “You know, like I think it was such a good idea, but, umm, you know it may not sound so smart where you put that quote at.”
  5. Address your opposition’s argument before your opposition does.  Show that your opposition’s argument may be justified, but not valid.  “Sure, you were justified in being angry that I stepped on your foot, but you had no right in hitting me.”
  6. Use words good… You’re only as smart as you sound, but if you over-do it you lose your credibility and sound foolish.  Sound naturally intelligent without sounding like you consulted a thesaurus.  There’s always a better way to say “a lot” but you do not have to say “surfeit.”
  7. Use grammar, well, good… a few commas go a long way.  Use punctuation to guide style, avoid run-on sentences, and always check your spelling.
  8. Find your rhythm.  Read your paper out loud, have it read to you, or better yet, use software such as Audacity to record you reading your essay.  Where do you pause to breathe?  Does the essay flow well?  A well written essay will flow well when read aloud.  If you’re stumbling when you read it, so will your reader.
  9. Address the issue- all of them.  Introduce, explain, and conclude.  Don’t introduce issues you never address.  When you conclude your essay, leave your reader wanting more but satisfied with the answers you’ve given.
  10. Repetition can strengthen the impact of a statement, but it can also sound like you couldn’t find a better word.  Use repetition sparingly and effectively.

I need to refine these a bit, but this should give me a jumping off point for more…

Image from citizen_smith58′s photostream.

Going Back and Forth

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I think I’m finally beginning to recuperate from last week’s Laptop Institute. There’s something about working 16 to 20 hour days- it takes me a bit longer to get back into the swing of things now. Now that the conference is over and we’ve begun looking toward next year, I finally have a few moments to reflect on my Ethics session. My plan had been to look at how trends in technology and ethical behavior give proof to a cyclical connection between the two: As technology advances and is a virtual free-for-all, unethical behavior leads to the establishment of an organized understanding of the technology which leads to further technological advancement. For example: Napster in the late 90’s early 00’s was a free-for-all with the illegal sharing of music. The illegal downloading of digital music led to legal crackdowns, but since digital music had become such a mainstay in the way people listened to music, a legal form (Rhapsody, iTunes, etc) formed. If we take this trend and apply it to other technological situations we see similar outcomes: YouTube, MySpace, Facebook, etc- all are on the verge of evolving further.

My session had intended to look at this further and then attempt to scrutinize how to best use these resources but it turned into something more. Something much more important to teachers: how to legally use copyrighted materials. The confusion that exists about if and how to use copyrighted materials is due to the confusing nature of the laws. Teachers can claim “Fair Use” on some items, but overall it sounds as if “Fair Use” is a catch-all category when we’re not really sure what to do and hope we won’t get into trouble when we’re caught. My general rules with my teachers for fair use are:

1.  Must be used in an educational setting (not just for entertainment)
2.  You cannot intend to sell the work or distribute it freely.
3.  Only use a portion of the music, video, etc that you need- not the whole thing
(I think the rule is 10% or 30 seconds, whichever is less).
4.  Try looking for public domain and “share alike” Creative Commons material first!
5.  Give credit where credit is due- always cite your sources.

The more I think back to the great discussion we had the more I see the conflict and the struggle that teachers are facing with “Fair Use.”

Picture:
huskyboy’s flickr photostream