Teaching students how to write a composition that is well-written and well-edited but doesn't sound stale is an uphill job in most English programs.

Typical English class students haven't much interest in their writing topics to begin with. If they have to revise, they lose even what little interest they had. The result is usually snoringly dull prose.

The cure is simple. First, have students write on authentic topics. (Students won't have much interest in those topics either, but at least they are relevant to what you are trying to accomplish.)

Then teach a writing process that minimizes rewriting and energizes composition, namely the process I teach at this site. Teaching students how to write a composition that is planned better and rewritten less reduces essay-fatigue for both students and their teacher.

Minimize rewriting

You can minimize rewriting by teaching students a strategic writing process that incorporates evaluation several times before students get to the composition stage.

Specifically, students can be taught to evaluate and revise their work

• After they draft a thesis statement.

• After they draft a writing skeleton™.

• After they draft a comprehensive writing plan.

Since none of those activities involve writing paragraphs, students don't regard changes to them as rewriting. They are just fixing things.

What's more, when students make repairs at those stages still have not tapped all the elements that transform isolated sentences into genuine writing. Students typically do not regard planning activities as part of the writing process. In fact, they don't believe you are teaching writing at all until you begin teaching them how to write a composition.

Energize composition in speed drafts

The real secret of how to write a composition that is both well-planned and spontaneous is speed drafting. For a short work, like an essay, speed drafting means writing the paper at a single, hour-long sitting without referring to the plan.

Writers can speed draft longer works, like term papers, in sections. Again the writers should limit themselves to working with an amount of material they can physically capture in an hour and write without without referring to their plan.

Have Joshua and Caitlin determine their theses, marshal their support, find their evidence, and set it all down in a comprehensive plan.

Then give them an hour to write the essay without reference to their notes. Set the composition time a day after they finish their plans and after they've had some rest and relaxation, so they are not already frazzled.

Composing fast without reference to notes is the key to recapturing a sense of spontaneity in material a writer has worked with repeatedly.

An hour is long enough for most people to concentrate on a complex intellectual task without a break. For some students, an hour is too long to sit. You'll need to watch students and adjust to what they can physically handle.

Time pressure makes students focus their attention. The challenge of beating the deadline energizes the students' writing. As a result, their composition is fresher, more spontaneous, than writing that's been rewritten a couple times.

Sounds terrifying to you? Perhaps it is. But fear is a great energizer.

Practice de-fangs the monster

Just so you don't scare students to death, you'll want to expose students several times to this part of learning how to write a composition.

You can suggest they begin their composition session by scratching a keyword outline. Chances are good that even if they are panicky and cannot recall something, once they begin to write they will remember.

Writing 400-750 words in an hour on a topic for which they are prepared should be a familiar experience for students by the the end of sophomore year of high school. Without that kind of timed writing experience, students will be at a disadvantage in many high school test situations, in college classes, and in workplace settings.

Additions to the comprehensive plan

When students sit down to speed draft, they flesh out their plans (English teachers call them outlines, but they are really plans) by adding four elements:

• An introduction.

• A conclusion.

• Linking devices to make the work cohere.

• A presentation strategy for evidence.

None of those elements is hard for students to understand, but implementing them requires practice. On another page, we'll look at ways you can support students while they are learning how to write a composition that adds all those elements to their comprehensive plans.