Has Writing Been Written Off?

“Maybe in one year we have about three papers that
we write and that’s it. And they’re generally
about two pages long,” says Bonnie, 16.

In fact, according to the National Commission on Writing
in America’s Schools, 75% of high school seniors never
receive a writing assignment from their history or social
studies teachers. And the extended research paper, once a
right of passage for seniors, has nearly become extinct.

“It’s very intimidating to me to know that I’m
going to be going into these colleges expecting me to know
college composition, and I know I’m not going to be
properly prepared if things stay the way they are,”
Bonnie says.

Experts say writing assignments cost teachers something they
don’t have – time.

“Teachers have so many students that they balk a little
bit … and who can blame them at the idea of having to
grade 150 papers every two or three weeks,” says Rob
Jenkins, an associate professor of English.

But experts say writing is the best way to develop critical
thinking skills: Students have to gather information, struggle
with the details and rework the information using their own
words.

“I’m not sure exactly what we’re doing
to teach critical thinking if we’re not having them
write,” Jenkins says.

Experts say one thing parents can do is pressure the school
board and principal to emphasize writing more. They can also
encourage their child to write on their own, like Bonnie,
and take an interest in their child’s work.

“It’s truly a life skill, and if we’re
not making sure our students, our children, are proficient
in that, then we’re failing them in an important way,”
Jenkins says.

Are students’
writing skills at their worst in decades? Possibly, according
to a new study from the National Commission on Writing, which
suggests today’s students don’t receive enough
writing instruction at school. The commission’s report
shows that most fourth-graders spend less than three hours
a week writing, which equals about 15% of the time they spend
watching television. Consider these additional – and
dismal – statistics about kids and writing:

• Seventy-five percent of high school seniors never receive
  a writing assignment from their history or social studies
  teachers.
• In most high schools, the extended research paper, once
  a senior-year rite of passage, has been abandoned because
  teachers do not have time to grade it anymore.
• Only about half of the nation’s 12th-graders report
  being regularly assigned papers of three or more pages in
  English class.
• About four in 10 seniors say they never, or hardly ever,
  receive writing assignments.
• On the National Assessment of Educational Progress exam,
  only about one in four students in Grades four, eight or
  12 scored at the proficient level in writing in 1998. And
  only one in 100 was graded “advanced.”

Why is writing becoming a lost art form in schools? Most
experts agree that part of the problem is the fact that many
high school teachers don’t assign writing tasks because
they don’t have the time to read and grade 120 to 200
papers per assignment.

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?”

Family
Education Network
National
Commission on Writing
National PTA
New York Times