Mar 15, 2010, Writing Points Ezine Archive Houses Back Issues
Writing Points delivers resources and tips for teaching writing, especially expository writing, in middle school and beyond to subscribers each month. This ezine archive contains back issues.
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Mar 15, 2010, Grammar Websites to Fix Students' Most Common Grammar Errors in Writing
Students will find English grammar help for their most common written grammar errors in selected grammar websites. The list is organized according to grammar and punctuation errors commonly found in students' and adults' writing.
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Mar 10, 2010, Language Learning Disorders in College-Bound Students
Livia McCoy, author of When Learning Is Painful, discusses practical teaching methods for bright students with language learning disorders including dyslexia, dysgraphia.
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Mar 1, 2010, Thesis help needed with research report
I need essay help with discerning the difference between a 'research report' and an' informative research report.' I need to form a thesis statement for
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Feb 22, 2010, Miss Hawk, a golf ball, and writing
In high school, my PE teacher told the class that golf was a very difficult game: nobody could hit the ball on the first try. To prove her point, Miss Hawk had the class try hitting a golf ball. She stood in front of us and laughed as, one after another, people missed the ball.
Miss Hawk could make me go through the exercise she set out, but she could not force me to make an effort to do it well. When my turn came, I picked up the club, closed my eyes, and swung.
When I opened my eyes, Miss Hawk was lying on the ground holding her head on which a red welt was already visible.
Miss Hawk never had us attempt golf again.
That experience with golf helped shape the way I teach writing.
First, it taught me that standing in front of students is dangerous for teachers: a moving target is harder to hit.
Second, it taught me it is stupid to set standards that you are sure most of your students cannot achieve.
Third, it convinced me that when the teacher sets the class objectives, then it is the teacher's responsibility to teach so every student meets those objectives.
It also produced a life-long resentment. Had it not been for Miss Hawk, I might have had a brilliant career on the PGA instead of spending my life writing about sewer systems and the pharmaceutical sales.
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Feb 17, 2010, Give visible proof of writing progress
Students brought up on Sesame Street are not going to spend five weeks practicing writing thesis sentences. If youe cannot show them how to get results, they are going to tune you out.
Of course, you cannot produce competent writers in 28 days, any more than Tiger Woods became a professional golfer in 28 days.
Since you cannot expect quick writing competence, the best alternative is to make sure students can produce visible results quickly.
If you use my essay writing process, students will produce a visible product at each stage of their writing process. Having something to show for their effort will help to keep them going.
Your job will be to push students through the whole writing process enough times that its strategies become second nature. At that point, they will be able to focus all their attention on the content of what they are writing — which is the whole point of teaching writing, isn't it?
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Feb 14, 2010, Essay Structure Is Easier than the Terminology Describing It
Essay structure, or essay format, is a series of generalizations supported by reasons. Best seen in the five paragraph essay, the organization follows the persuasive essay pattern.
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Feb 13, 2010, Have you read any good writing course descriptions lately?
Depending on how you are feeling at the moment, you will be depressed or amused by reading some of the descriptions of writing courses high school students are being offered online. Here are three I pulled from websites of online schools whose writing programs I have seen parents recommend.
"In this course, students will study approximately 20 styles of composition."
Would you care to guess in how many of those 20 styles students will be able write competently?
"Students explore a wide variety of composition writing, including several essay styles, research, fiction, and poetry."
Having students explore composition writing is probably better than having them explore decomposition writing, but shouldn't students learn to write as well as explore?
"Our courses are designed for college-bound students with high academic standards."
Translated, that means if your kid is not smart enough to get along without a teacher, do not send him to us. We cannot be expected to teach students who have low academic standards.
It makes no difference what students do in these classes, the schools earn their fees: they never promised that students would learn anything, did they?
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Feb 12, 2010, Be a better web writer
Do you blog? Use e-mail? Have a website? If you do any of those things, you need The Netwriting Master's Course: The Simple Art of e-Persuasion.
This 48-page PDF can be yours free. It’s one of several items you can choose as a bonus when you sign up for a free subscription to Writing Points, the monthly ezine for busy writing teachers.
Sign-up is easy. All I need is your first name and e-mail address.
To make sure nobody uses your e-mail address without your consent, you’ll need to confirm your subscription. After you cfirm, you’ll be able to download your Netwriting Master's Course.
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