My Writing Philosophy Research Paper

It is essential to understand that classes taken in grade school do not give students a full understanding of each subject. With the topic of writing, there will always be a new lesson to learn, an aspect to improve, or a differing way to explain. Author Craig Vetter states in Bonehead Writing, “This is your enemy: a perfectly empty sheet of paper. Nothing will ever happen here except what you make happen.” Each story, essay, or response comes from a writer’s experiences. With each attempt at a new piece comes an underlying story of emotions the writer is facing. Each person’s writing is unique and the ideas people have are related to their past experiences and what they believe to be familiar with when deciding which writing style to use. As a high school student, I have learned many things about writing that helped me become the improved writer I am today, but the most essential advice I have received is practice makes perfect. Although there is no actual perfect way of writing, I have discovered that each essay I write, my writing improves. It is easier to spot mistakes, find areas to improve, and ponder elevated word choice to use.

The art of writing is a complex and difficult process. Proper writing requires careful planning, revision, and proofreading. Throughout the past semester, the quality of my writing has evolved significantly. At first, I struggled with the separation of different types of paragraphs, and I found writing them laborious. Constant practice, however, has eliminated many of my original difficulties, and helped to inspire confidence in my skills. As a collegiate writer, my strength lies in my clear understanding of the fundamentals of writing, while my primary weakness is proofreading my own work.

In the article Teaching Writing as a Process Not Product by Donald M. Murray, Murray argues that writing is a process of discovery not an end product. Rather than being criticized for a “perfect product” by the teachers, student should be provided with an environment of creativity to explore and discover. Murray states that many teachers focus on the end product rather than teaching students the process of writing in order to receive a better product. The writing process has three stages of writing which include: prewriting, writing, and rewriting. In the prewriting stage, students should take about 85% of their time dedicated to the writing process. Prewriting includes strategies such as daydreaming, note taking, outlining, and lead-writing. Next is the writing stage where it should take about one percent of a student’s time. The writing stage is where students produce their first draft. Finally, it is the

Beginning my career at Western Carolina University, I had no idea the impact writing has on future educators. It is extremely important to have an effective writing strategy in all aspects of teaching. You will be required to write lesson plans, referrals, and letters home to the parents. Each of these have different strategies, and all of these are used simultaneously throughout the school year. Throughout the essay I will explain how to do each of these writings, and also give step by step instructions on an effective way to make sure it is done correctly.

In the article “Best Practices in Teaching Writing”, Charles Whitaker outlines eight points on helping students succeed as writers. The first

This entails working on the Seven Steps to Writing Success will be taught twice a week and writing tasks will also be included during literacy groups. Sizzling Starts and recounts will be the focus text in term one. Narrative and creative writing will be taught too and in both cases the emphasis will be on creating strong sentences with good structure. The lesson format for sizzling starts and narrative/creative writing will be explicit teaching to the whole class. My role as a teacher will be to identify the student’s level and provide appropriate feedback to support to move students toward the next level.

From elementary school to high school, I was taught that my writing had to be structured and follow strict criteria. After I arrived in Mr. Mukherjee’s ENG 102 class, I was given the opportunity to express my creative freedom through words and graphical pictures. It can often be difficult and challenging to improve upon my own writing abilities unless motived with an idea in mind. When looking back on my time at ASU, I thought about the goals that I wanted to address for myself and the course goals that my instructor had set for the class. These goals include ones that I had accomplished to the best of my ability and ones that I need to address as well as improve.

Instead of focusing on the different types of writing styles they will encounter in college and the workforce, most of the writing instruction students receive in their underclassman English courses at Carrizo Springs High School is primarily focused on preparation for the English Language Arts Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills Written Composition test, which has standards that are different than the outcomes they will be expected to accomplish in their dual credit English class and future college writing courses. Therefore, there must be a method implemented at Carrizo Springs High School and Southwest Texas Junior College to help students become more successful in dual credit English before they even step foot in that class. Students must understand that how they perform in that class will have an effect on their

Teachers, parents, and friends often tell students exactly what the writing process should entail and how long it should take. However, the older I get, the more I realize that the writing process varies not only from person to person, but also from one writing project to the next. Throughout my years of life, I have written countless papers, ranging from a persuasive speech to an extensive research paper, and each project requires an altered version of my personal writing process. While each individual has his own writing process, there can be many similarities between different writing processes. Finding one’s individual writing process takes trial, error, and repetition. When an individual finally uncovers his unique writing process, better thought, work, and writing is produced.

Chin, Beverly Ann (2000). The role of grammar in improving student’s writing. Retrieved from http://www.uwplatt.edu/~ciesield/graminwriting.htm

The nature of writing has changed in the past century. While writing still remains a form of visual communication, much of this change has been a result of technological advancements such as, from pen to paper or from a typewriter to a networked computer. The changes and expansion in the ways we are able to write today have brought about changes in writing pedagogy as well. The teaching of writing has been part of formal schooling in the United States for over 200 years (Kean 7). One major pedagogic change in United States’ education has to do with the implementation of the Common Core State Standards. These standards have led to a change in the instruction of writing in schools. This paper, will focus on instructional changes of writing over time and current expectations for writing abilities as whole.

Writing is a task that involves many cognitive processes. Because of this, it can hold some challenges and teachers can struggle with finding the right methods to teach the skill effectively. Fisher and Frey (2013) explain that “Writing needs to be taught” (p.96). A teacher cannot only give a prompt and tell their students to write about it without giving some instruction before it (Fisher & Frey, 2013). Also, writing cannot be limited to just English. Language Arts (ELA). It comes down to writing in every subject every day. Another point is that we cannot tell a student to write if we as teachers are not willing to write themselves. To teach students to be passionate about writing then teachers need to have that passion too. Young children

“Although No Child Left Behind (NCLB) has focused attention on improving reading and math achievement, little attention has been given to other subjects including writing. If state or local policies do not support the teaching of writing, there is a possibility that teachers will neglect writing instruction” (McCarthey, 2008). Within the past few years, my district adopted the STORYtown curriculum for reading and writing as a plan to improve student literacy scores district wide. Many teachers in my district admitted that since they struggle with finding time and an effective way of teaching writing, it is often overlooked. Learning to write is developmentally important for nurturing literate children. To resolve this issue, teachers are now raising questions about which methods are the best for the learners of today and where to begin this process.

Writing, communication using written language, is equally as important as reading (Roe & Ross, 2006). Elementary students will usually begin learning how to write by writing their names and the letters in the alphabet in kindergarten while teachers begin to focus on neatness as words and sentences are copied from the board. Word walls are often found in many classrooms to assist children with their writing. Starting in first grade usually, organization and a focus to the writing will become more prevalent as students are exposed to process of prewriting, drafting, revising, and editing. Penmanship also becomes highly important as the student learns how to write fluidly and legibly using correct form and spacing. To become an efficient writer the student requires a great deal of practice so the teacher should provide such practice as well as samples of completed assignments that are poor quality work and superior quality work. Students need clear expectations when given writing assignments which are often stated in scoring guides and rubrics.

Over the course of this past semester, my ability to write has improved tremendously. Prior to undertaking this course, my expertise in writing was not as fine-tuned as it should have been. I had never previously been enrolled in a class specifically tailored to writing-- which was quite clear. Upon reading my past works, it becomes apparent that my writing style consisted of fluff, small words, and inconsistently structured sentences. These problems have, for the most part, been remedied with the coursework I have tackled in College Writing. Rather than long, drawn out papers that take an eternity to reach the primary point, my recent work is much nicer in terms of composition and grammar. I credit these improvements to the three primary