An anecdote. My daughter was always a great reader. Something that helped her become a great writer (which she did) was reading *The Diary of Anne Frank* when she was in 5th grade. While she was reading it, I pointed out to her how much better a writer Anne was towards the end of the diary versus the beginning, and how you could see her using the diary to practice writing in order to get better at it. We talked a little about what "better" meant in the context of Anne's writing. Two days later, she started a diary of her own. She abandoned that after a few weeks, as most girls do, but she had firmly gotten in her mind that she had to write things all the time if she hoped to be a writer. So she started writing things all the time, and she got better and better.
But you have to listen to criticism, too. By 7th grade, she was so good that none of her teachers ever really challenged her on her writing. As a result, when she got to college, it was really hard for her to take criticism and advice. Ultimately, she figured that out, too, but it took more work than it should have.
I think that ideas and knowledge are really important to good writing. Facile writers are good at hiding where they don't know what they are talking about. But someone who really knows his stuff, and knows what he is trying to say, and why, is almost always going to do a better job writing -- even if his writing is utterly styleless -- than someone who knows syntax, grammar, and rhetoric but isn't clear about what he wants to say. To that end, reading and writing should both have a purpose, and the kid who is learning how to write should be trying, not necessarily to "write well," but rather to accomplish a particular job, or goal. And evaluation/criticism should be based on the effectiveness or performing that task, not on mere style per se.
A trick for expository writing that I find works about 80% of the time. Write the essay. Write the conclusion. Cross out everything but the conclusion, make it the introduction, and go back and write the essay that delivers the support for that introduction most effectively.
@Bromfield2 I agree with you fully on grammar. But I am a strong believer in getting the thought down on paper. Don’t let grammar, spelling, or other rules slow you down. I can imagine losing half of the idea in your head by slowing down for grammatical speed-bumps.
Mistakes can be corrected on the next read through. And, in time, mistakes will decrease.
Just my opinion.
ETA: There are probably a dozen grammatical mistakes in this post.
Having taught a great deal of grammar, I can say that it can be very empowering–students who are confident in their syntax, for instance, can produce more varied sentences, and sentence variety is the lifeblood of compelling writing.
What worked best for me was to write the introduction as an outline roadmap of arguments/points to be covered and a compelling thesis statement. Once I had that down, writing the body and conclusion while citing source materials as applicable flowed naturally without too much effort.
I agree with the “grammar” points also. I do not understand though how it is “natural” for some kids. My D’s comment on the preparation for the English section of the ACT was, that it is common sense and she does not need to prepare. On the other hand, the opposite was with Reading, she said that she cannot learn to read faster, so she did not prepare Reading section either. I guess, she had a “crystal ball” of some sort, as I mentioned before, her English score was 35 and her Reading score was 28. …And while I understand that writing is difficult for many, it never was hard for her. Most of the time, she just typed what she had already written in her head. Watching her growing, I noticed that she always liked to write, I believe that later in difficult teenage years, her writing became her psychologist, she realized that it calmed her down. I do not have any idea where it came from, not from any of us, not from reading. I told her many times that when she ended up having any kind of break in her life (will not happen for many years ahead), she should consider writing a book…I doubt it will ever happen…My granddaughter is also a good writer, but this girl carries a book to read with her anywhere she goes.
So on one hand, you can say, “Got to practice music, art, writing to become a musician, artist, writer. Forget about the “great”. We simply talking about ordinary people with the ordinary,” and on the other, your D, “just had a crystal ball of some sort.”
Maybe you can see why this might confuse. Granted, you’re talking about the ACT. But OP was looking for advice for a 9th grader.
And imo, the turning point is when one can edit, not just take in (reading) or shove out (just any writing, blogging or papers.) That’s the journey. Not just edit grammar, but content. Not just to a standardized test.
We are rather going in circles. Clearly, a number of us have different standards. So be it.
"So on one hand, you can say, “Got to practice music, art, writing to become a musician, artist, writer. Forget about the “great”. We simply talking about ordinary people with the ordinary,” and on the other, your D, “just had a crystal ball of some sort.” - Well, that is correct if you read only half of what I said. No, if you read my entire post where I mentioned that she had been WRITING A LOT from the very young age and by doing so happened to have much more PRACTICE WRITING than other kids her age. I cannot say the same about her reading though. She considers herself to be an ordinary person. As any ordinary people, we all have certain skills that we developed further than other set of skills, and both sets are different from one of us to the next. It is a mystery to me how each of us happen to pick up certain skill to develop, how it happens that we all enjoy doing different things. I do not see how it can get manipulated thru nurture. I guess, if one is raised in the pool, then he will be forced to learn how to swim. But aside from the extreme, I do not know how it is done.
Depends on the field, but for most real life writing the hardest obstacle to writing a good piece is having something worth saying.
It’s hard work to think of a good idea to write about. But if you manage to think of one and spend some time structuring your thoughts logically, then all you have to do is write as clearly as possible. No need for fancy rhetorical devices.
For students in middle and high school, I’ve always thought that the best classes for honing writing skills are often the history classes, not the English classes. That’s because a student has a rich but well circumscribed subject area where they can analyze a topic in-depth and think of a good argument that they wish to make.
I’m not sure I’d agree despite having been a student who enjoyed writing academic essays on history and related topics.
History classes…and to a lesser extent political science* are great at teaching non-fictional academic writing. However, they’re not so great at teaching what I’d consider to be a harder form of writing: creative/fictional writing which engages the reader. The best writers whether academics or non-academic tend to be excel at both.
Poli-sci minor who found some of the worst writing he's read came from reading poli-sci journal articles and monographs.
Then I’ll get my son back to this book (audiobook) when he’s a little older. He was hooked to Mark Twain’s Huck’s story but not Anne’s diary (boy vs girl?). I wish I could analyze the book and say why her writing gets better and where.
When I think about it, among the people I know in real life, good writers are often from families with parents as college language professors or professional writers. Natural talents aside, it seems practice and feedback play an significant role. Posters here offer many excellent ideas and suggestions, a lot to think about and act upon.
One thing makes me wonder. Though reading and writing are not correlated so tightly, how about chatty and writing? I guess a good talker is more likely or easier to be a good writer. My son isn’t someone with few words, though not much a reader, I hope he writes well.
I’m not sure there’s much of a correlation between being chatty and being a good writer. Know too many chatty college classmates and colleagues who are terrible writers in the academic/professional settings and suffered for it.
I’ll say upfront that my D is a fabulous writer as an adult.
I was going through old papers this week (throw out a bag a week!) and while I knew she had spent a lot of time writing growing up, I was overwhelmed with the sheer volume she had done over the years. Daily writing of journals /diaries since elementary school. Tons of stories, fan fiction, poetry, writing stories with friends, blog, a book, comics (now she’s publishing one!), essays (which by high school earned A plus plus).
The interesting part to me contrary to the idea that reading makes a writer is that she never was an avid reader.
She’s a good reader but would rather write than read. (Although we read tons of stories/books as a family–aloud and audio books too).
In fact, I distinctly remember her saying once that she didn’t want to read other people’s stories because she didn’t want them to creep into her own work
So perhaps constant writing born of the love of writing makes a writer.
Even if one’s not literate, being chatty doesn’t take nearly as much thought as crafting even a coherent…not necessarily a good piece of writing.
One older college classmate in particular can talk one’s ear off on the topics he’s very interested in. However, reading his workshopped essays in the seminars we took together or later, his asking me why his grad Prof drowned his research paper in red ink was such a painful experience that reading those jargon-drenched excessively obscurantist poli-sci journal articles would be effortlessly pleasurable in comparison.
The conventions of SWE (standard written English) don’t at all correlate with the standards of spoken English, so no, being chatty is unlikely to correlate with strong writing skills. More importantly, writing is organized thinking–cranking out a serviceable first draft is one thing, but it’s not good writing–good writing is revising, organizing, paring and pruning.
I have the upmost respect for those with skill of writing. I absolutely never learned how to write. I am extremely intimidated and in awe when I read from Arts and Letters and the such. I am not even sure I could tell from well written and articles not well written.
In my next life, I would love to be a classics major.
This was a comment made to me this morning about my essay that I had submitted to the editor. One reason why it flows, I think, is the amount of time I spent putting everything together and changing things around when necessary.
Several people have given the OP excellent ideas. I am always amazed when I come upon a writer’s great choice of words. All of us are artists and some of us like to paint, or sing, or dance, or sculpt. I like to write. If your child likes to write too then help him or her to become a better writer.
