Writing Gender Gap

“Sometimes when I don’t really have anything
to do, I’ll just go on the computer and just type a
story or something,” she says.

But when some guys, including Lindsay’s older brother,
don’t have anything else to do, writing is at the bottom
of their lists.

“I like to be a little more active than going down
and sitting down for a couple of hours and, you know, writing
or whatever,” 15-year-old John Bever says.

“I know I’d rather express myself playing basketball,
shooting hoops or something like that. You know, I’d
rather express myself in a different way than writing,”
says Kid Thompson, 14.

In fact, the National Center for Education Statistics assessed
120,000 eighth-graders and found that twice as many girls
were proficient writers compared to boys.

“This study was disturbing in that sense, in that I
had thought things were getting better, and according to this
one study at least, it doesn’t appear that they’re
getting any better,” says Rob Jenkins, a college English
professor.

Jenkins says the message boys often receive from their peers
– and sometimes from their parents – is that writing
is for girls.

“I do think that parents are more active in pushing
their boys into sports and other activities than they are
in encouraging them to read or to write,” Jenkins says.

Instead, experts advise that parents read to their sons starting
at an early age, encourage creative writing and discuss the
papers their sons write for school because the best way for
children to learn how to think, analyze and organize their
thoughts is by writing.

“It’s going to play a big part in getting into
the college of your choice. It’s going to play a big
part in how you do in college, and ultimately landing the
job that you want and … doing well in that job,”
Jenkins says.

Bever agrees: “I obviously don’t have any experience
in the business world, but from what I hear, you have to be
able to write.”

Boys’ writing
skills are dangerously lagging behind that of their female
counterparts, according to the latest data from the National
Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). The NAEP test,
administered nationwide to 276,000 students in 11,000 public
and private schools, evaluates students at the fourth, eighth
and 12th grade levels. This year, girls outscored boys by
a wide margin in all three grade levels. Consider these additional
findings from the test:

• At the national level for fourth-graders, average scores
  rose four points in 2002 as compared to 1998. Scores for
  eighth-graders increased by three points. The average score
  for 12th-graders did not show a significant change.
• Forty percent of eighth-grade girls scored high enough
  on the NAEP test to be considered “proficient”
  under the test’s rules. Only 20% of boys did so.
• If all of America’s eighth-grade girls moved to
  their own state, it would have the fourth-highest writing
  scores in the country. If all of the boys moved to their
  own state, it would rank 37th of the 41 states that NAEP
  tested.

If your child’s school does not emphasize
teaching writing skills, you can take several steps on your
own to help your child become a better writer. Consider these
tips from the experts at Family Education Network:

• Provide appropriate tools and space.
  Provide plenty of paper – lined and unlined –
  and different kinds of writing utensils, including pencils,
  pens, markers and crayons. Allowing your child to choose
  a special pen or journal will help promote a willingness
  to write. Make sure the lighting is adequate and that the
  writing surface and chair are comfortable for your child.
• Allow time. Help your child
  spend time planning a writing project or exercise. You may
  even want to set aside a daily writing time at home. Writing
  for 20 minutes per day is equally as important as reading
  the same amount of time.
• Respond. Respond to the
  ideas your child expresses. Focus first on what your child
  has written, not how it was written. In the beginning, you
  can ignore minor errors while your child is just getting
  ideas together. After you acknowledge and respond to the
  content of your child’s writing, go back and correct
  errors or misspelled words.
• Praise. Always say something
  good about your child’s writing. Is it accurate? Descriptive?
  Thoughtful? Interesting?
• Write together. Have your
  child help you with letters, even such routine ones as ordering
  items from an advertisement or writing to a business firm.
  This helps him or her see a variety of ways in everyday
  life that writing is important.
• Make it real. Your child
  needs to do real writing. Encourage him or her to write
  letters or send email to relatives and friends or to help
  with shopping lists.

It is important to remind your child that writing skills
don’t come without some hard work. You can help keep
your child on the “write” track by trying the
following strategies from the National PTA:

For middle school students:

• Do crossword puzzles with your child and play word games
  like Scrabble, which are excellent vocabulary builders.
• Teach your child to write the conclusion to an essay or
  story first. The conclusion of an essay is really a “destination”
  – it’s where the writer tries to take the reader.
  All of the thinking and reading a child has done on a topic
  has led to the conclusion.
• Encourage journal writing. The journal now becomes a diary
  full of names, places and activities that serves as your
  child’s memory bank for future writing assignments.
  It’s also a record of his or her evolving writing
  style.

For high school students:

• Encourage your child to write for the school newspaper
  or yearbook. These are excellent ways to develop a sense
  of writing structure and writer’s “voice.”
• Suggest that your teen learn how to handle writing deadlines.
  Use the “practice time” approach: Set aside
  time each day to work on a long-term assignment or just
  to write. Sticking to this routine helps your teen get into
  a habit so that he or she can deal with deadlines sensibly
  rather than feel stressed by an “all-nighter.”
• Advise your teen to interview someone in his or her anticipated
  career field about the value of writing to career performance.
  Your teen can ask questions such as, “Is writing important
  to you in your job? How? How important is writing when communicating
  with other people at work, such as your boss, co-workers
  and those you manage? How do you view your writing ability
  in terms of job promotion?”

Dallas
Morning News
Family
Education Network
National
Assessment of Educational Progress
National PTA