Journal Entry

Helping your teen become a better writer

As a high school writing teacher, I know how important writing skills are. Writing is required in every class in most states, thanks to a program called “Writing Across the Curriculum.” Even math and gym teachers have to assign and evaluate writing. In addition, students must pass basic skills tests or graduation tests before they can receive a diploma, regardless of their grades. In other words, a student could have all “A’s” but if he doesn’t pass the graduation tests before the middle of the twelfth grade, he doesn’t graduate. A major component of these tests is writing.

If your teen is having problems with writing, you, as a parent, can help. Of course, you can always request after-school help from his writing teacher. Unfortunately, teachers are spread so thin that you’ll be lucky to get a few minutes of one-on-one instruction. Before you resort to hiring a tutor, try a few of these strategies at home.

Outlining : Encourage your teen to make an outline before starting a paper. Content and organization are weighted the heaviest on writing tests, and an outline will help him organize his thoughts. Any writing of this sort should always have a definite beginning, middle, and end. It should be in paragraph form. I realize this sounds elementary, but you would be amazed at how many students write a whole essay or narrative using one long paragraph!

Paragraphing : Your teen must be able to write a well developed paragraph before he can tackle an entire essay or story. Come up with a few simple topic sentences and have him write four or five sentences that support the topic. Use something like “A good leader must be honest.” He’ll write sentences explaining why a good leader needs to be honest. Once he gets used to doing this, it will become second nature.

Style : On most writing tests, after content and organization, the most important element is style. To improve your teen’s writing style, encourage him to vary his sentence patterns, to use a mixture of simple, compound, complex, and compound-complex sentences.

Teach your teen about connotation. Certain words carry implied meanings and help readers with sensory images. For example, compare “ran” to “bolted,” or “ate” to “devoured.” See the difference? Interesting verbs add interest to a paper, just like interesting adjectives do: big vs. enormous, white vs. blanched, black vs. raven.

Let’s take a look at a couple of words from a Byron poem: “raven tress.” Doesn’t that create more of an image than saying “black hair,” even though they mean the same thing?

Word choice is very important, especially when referring to the same noun several times in a paper. A writer shouldn’t keep repeating the same word. If a story is about a horse, don’t use the word “horse” over and over. Mix it up. Use “horse” a few times, but use “equine,” “pony,” “steed,” and “mount,” also.

To help your teen with word choice, invest in a good thesaurus. It will help him come up with interesting synonyms, and with practice, it will come easier for him.

The absolute best way for parents to help their children become better writers is to encourage them to become better readers. This point cannot be stressed enough. We learn to write well by reading quality writing and literature. They serve as models, and after we’re exposed to large amounts of quality writing, we get a subconscious “feel” for the way words should flow together, thereby improving our own writing.

These are just a few suggestions I use with my students when they’re struggling with writing skills. They might seem simple, but I’ve had surprising success with them. It’s so rewarding when I see that “light come on” in my students’ eyes. With enough guided practice, you’ll experience this same phenomenon when your teenager “gets it.”