The Effects Of Explicit Writing Instruction On The English Language Classroom

Furthermore, according to Duncan Carter’s article, Five Myths About Writing, “Years of well-intentioned English teachers have responded to students’ first drafts as if they were supposed to have been perfect. Combined with a pedagogy which suggests that revision is a form of punishment, it is not hard to see where students get the idea that good writers don’t have to revise” (Carter, 82). Growing up, high school teachers make it seem as if revising and editing your paper is the worst thing ever. Any student who worked long and hard on their assignment and turned it in to get revised, would hate to receive a paper back with nothing but red marks and errors written all over them. This initially gave people the mindset of forgetting about editing their work if all it did was tear them down and point out their mistakes.

Writing can be a daunting task for students in any grade. Teachers have to implement new basic components for those struggling to write. Finding new methods and being able to execute them requires teachers to design lesson plans that help

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

In the article by Downs and Wardle “Teaching about Writing, Righting Misconceptions”, the author’s state a common misconception of writing for first year composition is that academic writing is somehow universal. This idea can be misleading since teachers have always taught that there is a basic set of rules for writing. However, I agree with the idea that writing is not universal because college students write for a various number of discourse communities and do not have one general audience. Content, context, and genre are bound to change while attending a university.

Error is something that is prominent in our daily lives. It is a natural occurrence from which we as humans tend to learn from. When the question of error in writing is provoked, things are not as simple given the fact that the, “Lack of clarity about errors contradicts what is perhaps the most common belief about error in writing, namely, that errors are simply “wrong”(Lu & Horner 189). Min-Zhan Lu and Bruce Horner are English professors at the University of Louisville, who are also co-authors of Writing Conventions. In this textbook, Lu and Horner define error from many different perspectives.Throughout the chapter pertaining to error, there is supporting evidence to back up each position on what the definition of error is. In the writing,

I observed Dr. Jenny Crisp’s English 98 class on January 19, 2016. The class began at 12:15 PM and lasted until 1:20 PM. The room that the class met in was on the third floor of the Liberal Arts building, and the room had individual computers for each of the students to work on. The class was divided into two sections on this day because Dr. Crisp had scheduled an introductory visit to the writing lab, which began at 12:45. Prior to the visit to the writing lab, Dr. Crisp guided the class in a discussion on the topic of revision in regards to the first paper that the class had submitted. The stages of revision were discussed and the students were shown where additional help could be found within the book. Dr. Crisp told the students that the reason that their grades on the essays were significantly lower was because the essays were lacking in detail and had Type One errors. She stated that revision is important and that could help bring up the grades on the essays.

In chapter 9, Writing Across the Curriculum, the process of reading and writing was investigated and explained in comparison to one another. The reading-writing connection focuses on drawing from students’ prior knowledge and cognitive processes in order to build learning. The authors mentioned that the writing process is a strong tool for exploring and clarifying meaning and the two major instructional components used are writing to learn (WTL) and writing in disciplines (WID). The chapter also focused on the subareas of academic journals and writing disciplines.

While attending public schools english teachers did not begin teaching students the proper method to create a essay until the sixth grade. I never understood writing, because the stress of the state test, the teachers only taught what will earn students a successful score. In lectures, we learned to create and revise an essay. The teacher trusted student to be accurate in their corrections. By analyzing Richard Straub’s document, I have gained knowledge on where to put place my comments, how to criticize an essay and goals a responder should encounter.

To conclude, the idea of teaching writing with CALL definitely offers much in the way of learning value. Particularly the concept of giving feedback to a learner in a variety of approaches gives more potential for learning than previously ever predicted. The many different forms of feedback discussed in this assignment isolate different learning methods and responses from a student. There are two studies that look specifically into how effective online learning environments are and both indicated that automated feedback adds significance to student writing, although students do not appear to enjoy the process as much as being in a classroom. These studies identify two important points, that learning how to write should be engaging and that other real people tend to make it more so. Of these two studies, one was a huge data sample and one was

Before starting school, I incapable to write or speak English at all. Because English is my second language I had a hard time understanding how to read and write in English. My parents and older siblings would often teach me the basics of having to know my numbers, ABCs, and by making me memorizing saying simple sentences and questions. English is everyone in my family's second language and because we did not grow up learning how to speak, read, and write in English which made it difficult for me when school started.

Christine Love Thompson discusses strategies that she believes are the foundation to “good” writing in the article, “A Dose of Writing Reality: Helping Students Become Better Writers.” Thompson discovers that it is not correct spelling and grammar that makes a “good” writer; it is the voice of the student. She uses sources to support her claim that methods such as using graphic organizers and her constantly making corrections are not as effective as they seem. Thompson organizes the article to ensure better understanding of the process she went through to help her students become better writers.

English is a hard language to learn, for there are numerous elements of effective usage and writing. Many people, including me, struggle in writing because of a lack of knowledge. Since middle school, English was not a strong suit of mine. I struggled with the simplest of tasks often taking a considerably longer time to complete a task than the other students. Unmotivated teachers and a lack of interest resulted in remedial writing skills. To put it simply, I had little confidence in my writing and I dreaded taking the class because of the writing involved. In spite of my fears, I took the course and I was able to perfect and challenge my mediocre writing skills.

Writing not only reflects on one’s credibility in literacy, but also how America’s school system has failed students at writing in English courses. As a student, I would describe my writing as “honest, but complex”. For as long as I can remember, writing was always a tool that allowed a person to eloquently express his or her opinions, and analyze writing prompts given by teachers at school. Today, most students in English class solely attempt at getting a good grade rather than thoroughly understanding grammar and writing. Moreover, a solution for this would be allowing more English teachers at school to come together to improve the emphasis on proper language learning as well as the value of writing.

Researchers, such as Corder (1967) define the word ‘error’ when people do not follow grammatical rules or structures. At the basis of the accuracy-fluency controversy is the question of error. Once thought to be deviant behavior, error is now seen as a neutral phenomenon in learning of all kinds; learning to ice skate, to type, to analyze literature, to speak a first or second language. Of course, errors in written language can be due to intonation, memory lapse, or indifference and in an in-class writing situation, NES (Native English Speaker) as well as EFL (English as a First Language) students will make hasty performances errors. Generally, EFL errors are neither random, nor sporadic or deviant, instead they are systematic, regular and

In teaching and learning English, there are two aspects that should be concerned. The first one is the language skills such as speaking, listening, reading, and writing. The second one is the language components such as vocabulary, and grammar. These two aspects are taught in order to make the students achieve the ability in communicating both in spoken and written forms.