Tutoring the writing process

A good piece of writing usually goes through several stages of development, and then loops back to be edited and re-worked again. This process is called the writing process, and our tutors walk students of all ages through this process. Students sometimes have difficulty with the writing process, because it is iterative, and students often lose interest after doing things once. In math, for instance, you get the answer and you are done. In writing there is always more you can do to improve a piece. Getting students motivated to do that can be difficult, and we will talk about that towards the end of this entry. First, let's take a look at the writing process.

There are many variations on the writing process, but most have five steps, and the core elements are similar between versions. Our tutors use some variation of the following writing process:

• Pre-writing (planning, brainstorming, taking notes)
• Drafting (writing a first version of the piece)
• Revising (reviewing and re-working the draft.)
• Editing (making sure all punctuation, spelling, and sentence structures are correct)
• Publishing (in school, this usually means turning the paper in)

Keeping kids interested
This is by far the most challenging part of teaching writing, particularly to younger students. Students are often impatient and do not have long attention spans. They would rather "finish" something the first time and move on to something else in most cases. Writing, though, is a process that takes time. Students who are successful usually revisit their work several times to make changes before handing a piece in.

Teachers, parents and tutors can motivate young writers in particular by allowing the student to write about what they are interested in while the student is learning the writing process. If the student likes baseball, let her write about it while learning the steps in the process.

Free writing is a good way to get the juices flowing. Free writing is just dumping thoughts onto the paper as fast as the student can write. Make sure you tell the student that no one, not even you, will read the writing without the his or her permission. This takes the pressure off, and allows the creative juices to flow.

Another technique that can be effective is to write with the student. If the student sees that you are writing something too, he or she might be more inclined to get involved. Also, the student will see how you use the writing process at (hopefully!) a higher level than the student. This is good practice.

Another way to motivate is to read good writing pieces on topics that interest the student. You can break the stories down, and analyze them. Sooner or later though, the student has to buckle down and write. Hopefully some of the strategies above will help.