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TEACHING WRITING
7 March, 2005
DAILY WRITING
What kind of things do
you write on a daily basis?
Maybe just short notes
or e-mails, probably not argumentative essays, at least not most days! Yet
this is what our students are asked to do regularly.
And then there are so
many styles of writing; business letters, memos, reports, discursive essays,
and book reports. So it's no surprise that students of English (and their
teachers!) find writing so demanding. What's more, there is a cultural factor
to take into account. Do the British or Americans write English in the same
way as the Chinese write in Chinese?
BUSINESS
WRITING
Students of business or
people working in business need to learn many kinds of format and styles of
writing. Getting clarity, brevity and a logical progression seem to be some
of the hardest things for students to achieve. In our meeting two books were
recommended to aid in the task, "Writing e-mails in English" by
Emerson and "Practical Business Writing" by S. Kay.
ACADEMIC
WRITING
Many teachers are
dealing with students who have to learn academic writing, especially those
who want to go abroad to further their study and learn more knowledge.
It seems one of the key
areas that has to be focused on is teaching writing techniques, such as
brainstorming, planning, drafting, editing and so on. This is often referred
to as Process Writing. Here all writing is treated as a creative process that
needs planning and chopping and changing as needed, with the teacher as a
facilitator and aid in this process.
Another area to focus
on is the use of the WH... questions. This is key in identifying the purpose
of the writing. Every time we write there is a purpose and if we don't give
our students one, or help them identify one, their writing will lack
communicative value and direction. WH... questions identify WHO is it for?
WHY are you writing? WHAT are you writing?
In addition to these,
Jane Willis in "Teaching English through English" identifies many
sub-skills that need to be taught and learnt. These include, amongst others;
- spelling and punctuation
- handwriting
- linking sentences
- logical organization
- variation in sentence
patterns to show emphasis
- use of selective vocabulary
- use of signposts to guide
reader
One tip to help
learners check their work is to get them to read it out loud when they've
finished writing. This often helps them identify mistakes or slips.
On the subject of
vocabulary, it was stressed the importance of teaching students to explore
the use synonyms in their writing. Also, the have to become aware of the use
of jargon in different areas of writing. Students who have to write film
reviews, must read widely in this field first in order to become aware of the
jargon that is used. The teacher can help show them the use and boundaries of
such jargon.
Another book
recommended for Academic Writing was by Steven Bailey, with the same name
"Academic Writing". He emphasizes writing as communication and the
importance of that concept when teaching it.
We were sent an
excellent and concise guide to Academic Writing prepared by Steven Samuels.
This focused on the sub skill of paragraph writing. This can be seen in the
enclosed attachment PARAGRAPHS.
THE CHINESE
WRITER
As mentioned above, one
of the hardest issues for the Chinese student is adopting a style of writing
that is quite different from his/her own way of writing in Chinese.
The Chinese style of
writing seems to be more circular and repetitive and then at the end may say
what they want to say. There may be less logical and linear topic development
typical of Western writing. When learning Chinese writing, Chinese students
are taught to follow the teacher's lead. This maybe verbatim, in fact, what
we may call copying could be seen as simple and praiseworthy repetition of
what the teacher wrote. Metaphorically, a Chinese student may learn to
recognize a plate, knife and spoon on the table, but may not be able to
recognize them as easily, if they were put in a different order. Even in
University there is little creative writing; it is often based on models to
learn from.
So Chinese University
students learning English clearly need a lot of exposure to different types
of Academic writing. Reading is essential to get a feel for the Western
approach.
Students also have to
be aware that they are writing to fit a cultural template.
It's not just about
language but also about culture.
IDEAS FOR THE
STUDENTS:
- Make a dictionary with
Academic jargon that you come across.
- When practicing academic
writing, learn to substantiate your statements. Just making broad
generalizations without backup is not sufficient.
- Focus on the target reader.
IDEAS FOR THE TEACHERS:
- If students seem to have no
ideas on a topic, then you can brainstorm the topic in class first, and
then have them write ideas up on the board.
- Give model answers for
students to learn from.
- Have students do the
writing in class, not at home. This will stop any temptation to
plagiarize.
- Try collaborative writing
where they work in small groups to write an essay.
- Give them templates (e.g.
of linking words or paragraph headings) that they have to work from when
writing an essay. (This will also mean they won't be able to plagiarize
as it will stand out!)
- Use guided writing, by
introducing a theme with pictures (of the target reader for example),
ideas about it and further details (why, when, how, what...). This could
be done orally or written.
- Chinese students often seem
afraid of giving outspoken ideas or views that may differ from the
teacher's. Reassure them that they won't be marked down for giving the
"wrong" idea.
One final piece of
advice that came up and has been heard many times from Chinese students
returning from studying a broad is this. Get your written English up to
scratch before you go abroad. You certainly won't have time to learn English
once you start doing your degree!
And finally a
couple of links for you:
Approaches to process
writing.
http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/think/write/process_write.shtml
Teaching writing skills
http://www.onestopenglish.com/tefl_skills/writing.htm
Mind maps to develop
writing
http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/think/write/mind_map.shtml
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