
If you are teaching essay writing to beginning writers like
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Eighth grader Josh,
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Tenth grader Caitlin,
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Clueless Kate, age 38,
the techniques used in the Iowa Writers' Workshop are probably
not a good choice. Beginning writers need different kinds of help
than people working on their MFA degree.
You need to think and teach a strategic writing process appropriate
to novices who let's be honest about this don't
give a hoot about learning to write well.
Even the students who are interested in writing need to become
competent expository writers before they can go off to Iowa for
two years to write their first prize-winning novels.
So, what do we do to start beginning writers off on the right foot?
We begin with the old standby: the 5-paragraph persuasive essay.
It has been the best tool for teaching essay writing for centuries.
If you don't know why
you should be teaching essay writing instead of creative fiction,
check out best teaching practices.
If you find my approach is a bit beyond your students, the next
best thing I've found is a homeschool
family's explanation of the five-paragraph-essay. It's less
detailed than my material, but entirely compatible with my approach
to teaching essay writing.
Repetition aids learning
The folks at the Iowa Writers Workshop will probably say the five
paragraph essay is boring, but that is precisely why it is useful
for teaching beginners.
Instead of starting by having beginning writing students think
up a writing topic, give them one. That's what happens in the real
world. Authentic writing prompts are given 99% of the time.
Then take students through a writing
process for turning that topic into an essay.
Teach strategies for planning
The expository writing process has three stages. Of the three stages
When teaching essay writing to beginning writers of any age, emphasize
the two parts of the writing process beginners often skip: planning
and polishing.
The planning begins with a thesis
statement. Students either get that from
the writing prompt or develop it from options
suggested in the writing prompt. If you do your job well, that
step is easy for students.
The second step in planning is to prepare a three-sentence
outline showing the reasons for believing the thesis to be true.
Students can create their outlines by following a template. Basically
all beginners have to do is fill in the blanks.
As they complete the sentence outline template, students are force
to employ a strategy for linking a thesis with the topic sentences
of paragraphs.
By creating sentence outlines for several different essays, students
will learn the relationship between thesis and topic sentences
in much the same intuitive way a driver learns the relationship
between a certain amount of pressure on the gas pedal and how fast
the car goes.
The third stage of planning is developing
evidence to support the topic sentences. Here again there are
strategies students can use for every essay. One strategy
gives students a template so they don't have to develop an outline
for each new essay.
Other strategies provide help students to
Sooner or later you'll find information about all those strategies
for teaching essay writing here on this website. Don't honk. I'm
writing as fast as I can!
Teach spiffy presentation strategies
You can teach development as a strategy for presenting
evidence. Once students catch on, they no longer struggle with
finding ways to "write more" about an idea.
Drafting the composition is easy after all that planning.
However, students need a way to bring some energy and zest to their
writing. There's a strategy for that, too.
The entire final stage of the writing process is work. You
can't make revising and editing fun, but you can teach students
strategies for doing a thorough job with minimal effort.
Teach strategies for self-monitoring
If students are going to learn how to write an essay and become
competent writers, they have to learn to monitor their own behavior
and correct their own work. You can help by teaching them how to
find and use resources that include everything from checklists to
word processors.
When Josh and Caitlin and Kate are competent essayists, you can
relax. You only have to concentrate on teaching essay writing until
students know enough to improve as writers without additional instruction.
Isn't that something to look forward to?
created 29-Aug-2008; updated 6-Nov-2008