Writing is needed in everyday life and everyone should be able to write properly. However, not everybody was taught the proper way to write, including students in today’s schools. Patricia A. Dunn explains how the bad idea of “Teaching Grammar Improves Writing” is that helping students with their grammar improves the student knowledge of linguistics, but if the students writing need to improve the teachers will have to teach the writing. Ken Lindblom explains how school writing should be replaced by authentic writing in “School Writing Vs. Authentic Writing”. Dunn and Lindblom believe that a better idea is to teach students to improve their writing skills is by making their writing assignments authentic writing.
Dunn explains how grammar drills in school do not help the students at all. Many people believe grammar is all that is needed to become a better writer, but that is not true. Grammar is a part of the writing but it does not make the writing. “One way to improve writing is to stop looking for a better way to teach grammar. To improve writing, find a better way to teach writing.” (Dunn144). In order to improve the students writing level, teaching the students grammar alone will not do it. Lindblom explains how students are not engaged in student writing as they should be due to five-paragraph essay formats and the books that they are forced to write about. “Nowhere in the world outside school is writing expected to be formally written without a real purpose and without a real audience.” (Lindblom1). In order words, student writing is seen as useless outside of school because no student is able to put their opinions out there to share with the world, unlike in authentic writing. In school writing, students have to ask themselves if their spelling counts or if they cited the correct number of sources. At the same time, with authentic writing, students are asking themselves whether their essays are persuasive enough to persuade or inform people.
Writing is something that has been around for centuries, but from thirty years ago until now, grammar exercise assignments never helped students approve. “Decades of research have shown that isolated grammar exercises are among the worse uses of time in writing class, given that such practices can result in students’ writing actually getting worse.” (Dunn145). Dunn goes into depth on how new writing instructors need to stop focusing on grammar and focus on the writing because it is not going to change the student’s way of writing. Techniques to improve writing can be sentence combining in which short sentences are edited to become longer, rearrange clauses and phrases, and linking punctuation. “They can teach students to write in real-world situations, helping them notice how different writing projects can have very different constraints.” (Dunn146-147). If students apply their writing to real-world situations, they will be able to make their writing more effective and informative.
Authentic writing helps students develop real-world writing skills like writing in formal and informal registries or be able to analyze and understand the different conventions required for different genres. It is a fact that this generation of students is writing more than they ever did before, even if it is mostly online. Many social media platforms give students a way to state their opinion or write something towards a specific group of people. “If we want all students to learn to write the best of their ability we must design writing assignments that excite their interests: assignments that allow students to select topics that they are interested in and that allow them to write to real audiences they truly want to speak to.” (Lindblom1). A better way for students to actively engage in their writing class is to write about something they care about. If they are working on school writing they are only writing in order to get a good grade and there will be no enjoyment while they work on it.
Students’ writing abilities can change every day, but it is quicker for them to improve with practice. Learning how to write does not come naturally, it could take months or even years to perfect. Even if someone practiced how to write for years, mistakes will still be made. Grammar is not the only way to learn writing. Continuing how to write about real-world situations or using authentic writing may help. The point of writing is to share your opinion and make a difference in saying it.
Work Cited:
Dunn, Patricia A. “Teaching Grammar Improves Writing,” in Bad Ideas About Writing. pp. 144-149. Web. https://textbooks.lib.wvu.edu/badideas/badideasaboutwriting-book.pdf
Lindblom, Ken. “School Writing Vs. Authentic Writing,” 2015 27 July. Web. https://writerswhocare.wordpress.com/2015/07/27/school-writing-vs-authentic-writing/