4 Ways to Teach Writing Skills - WikiHow

How to Teach Writing SkillsBasic Skills Teaching Small Children and Preteens Teaching Teenagers Teaching Adults

Literacy, or the ability to read and write, is one of the greatest gifts you cangive a person. Though the skills are many and take time and practice tomaster, they will open up countless opportunities across a lifetime. Theseopportunities can then improve the lives of the next generation, greatlyimpacting and improving communities. Reading and writing also brings joy tomany people. If you would like to encourage literacy skills in the lives of peoplearound you, here are some helpful ideas.

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Teach letters. Teaching the fundamentals of letters (what a letter is, what eachletter is called, and how it sounds) is where you should begin if you want to teach

literacy effectively. Regardless of age level or language, literacy must begin with anunderstanding of letters. If you are teaching a language with a non-roman alphabet, thesame principle applies: teach the characters first.

Teach your students how to recognize the different shapes of the letters. Theywill need to be able to easily differentiate between letter which look the same orletters which sound the same.Size variation is an important part of learning to write letters. Teach yourstudents about capital letters and lowercase letters and when to use them. Ifteaching a non-roman alphabet, this will be less of a problem.Directionality is another important skill. Your students will need to know whatdirection letters face and how to properly place them next to each other. Forroman lettering, this will be right to left and horizontal. For other languages itcan also be left to right or vertical, depending on the region.Spacing is an important skill as well. Teach your students how to place space inbetween words, sentences, paragraphs, etc.

Teach phonics. Phonics is all about learning what sound letters make, how toidentify those sounds, and how to work with them. Developing your students’

understanding of phonics will be key to teaching them to read and write.

Teach your students to hear. They need to be able to listen to speech andrecognize that those words are composed of individual sounds.Once they grasp the concept of those sounds, teach them to identify thesounds. For example, your students will need to be able to hear an “aaaaahhhh”sound and know that it is written with an “a”.Once they are comfortable identifying sounds, you will also need to teach themhow to manipulate sounds within words. They should be able to recognize whenwords rhyme or when one word out of a set begins or ends with a differentsound than the others. They should be able to think of their own examples aswell.Teach compound sounds as well. You will need to explain that when certainletters appear together, it changes how they sound. For example, in English the“th” or “sh”, in Spanish the “ll”, and in German the “ch” or “eu”.

Teach the forming of words. Once your students have a solid grasp on letters

Method 1 of 4: Basic Skills

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and their associated sounds, you can move on to using those letters and sounds to formwords. Read to them frequently at this stage, as well as writing lots of examples for themto look at. This will give them opportunities to see how words are formed.

An important part of teaching word formation is teaching your students thedifference between vowels and consonants. Teach them which letters are whichand explain the necessity of vowels within a word. Teach the basic principlesregarding where in a word vowels can go. For example, it is very rare for theonly vowel in a word to go at the very end of the word but quite common to havethe second letter or sound of a word be a vowel.

Understand sentence structure. You students will need to learn and understandsentence structure once they have mastered forming words. Sentence structure is

the order in which words or parts of speech go, the sequences in which they are used.Understanding sentence structure will be necessary if they are to form written sentenceswhich sound correct. Often people will have difficulty writing naturally like this, even ifthey speak correctly.

Your students should learn how to identify nouns. Teach them what a noun isand where it usually goes in a sentence. The easiest way to explain it will likelybe the tried-and-true “person, place, thing or idea”.Your students will need to be able to identify verbs, too. Teach them about“action words” and give them lots of examples. You can have them act outdifferent verbs in order to solidify the concept in their mind. Explain where verbsgo in a sentence.Your students will need to be able to identify adjectives as well. Explain thatadjectives describe other words. Teach them where these words go in asentence and how they attach to other words.

Teach proper grammar. Teaching proper grammar will be absolutely essential toyour students’ learning to write sentences which can be understood and sound

natural.

Using parts of speech together is an important concept in grammar. Yourstudents should develop an understanding of how nouns, verbs and adjectivesinteract and how they fit together. Where these words go in a sentence andwhen they must be preceded or followed by another is also important tounderstand.Tense is a key concept to understanding how to form proper sentences. Yourstudents should learn and practice creating sentences which take place in thepast, present, and future. This will teach them how words must be changed inorder to indicate time. This is a complex skill and is often not truly mastered untilmuch later.Conjugation and declension are other important skills. Conjugation is how verbschange, depending on how they interact with the other words in the sentence.For example, in English we say “I jump” but we also say “she jumped”. Nounscan go through a similar process, called declension, but it is nonexistent inEnglish.Though it has largely been removed from English, many other languages havecase systems which your students will need to understand if they are learningone of those languages. Cases denote the different functions that nouns andpronouns can serve in a sentence and, at least in those languages with a casesystem, how the case changes the noun (generally with a shift in suffix).

Don’t forget punctuation. A difficult skill to master, the use of proper punctuationwill be vital to creating well constructed sentences. Later in life, proper punctuation

is often seen as a mark of intelligence and education, so building your students’ skills inthis area will be very important for opening up opportunities for them in the future.


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Focus on the simplest skills. When teaching literacy to children and pre-teens, itis important to focus on building the simplest skills first. Emphasize the

fundamental building blocks discussed above, as having a thorough understanding ofthese concepts and skills will give your students a solid foundation on which to buildfuture reading and writing skills.

For elementary age children, literacy skills will place a stronger emphasis onthings like spelling, whereas literacy education for pre-teens will spend moretime with grammar.

Introduce the types of writing. There are many different types of writing whichyour students will need to learn about. Knowing how to recognize and reproduce

different styles for different contexts will be very important later on in life.

Teach your students to recognize narrative writing. This is writing which conveysa story and is the form most often read for pleasure. It is commonly used as anexercise to increase literacy skills. Examples of narrative writing include novels,biographies, history, and newspaper articles. It is easily recognized by theformat: “This happened, and then this happened, and then this happened.” andso on.Teach your students to recognize persuasive writing. This is writing which laysout a logical argument. Examples of persuasive writing can be seen in jobapplications, editorials, and academic papers.Teach your students to recognize expository writing. This is writing whichexplains, informs or describes something. What you are reading now is anexcellent example of expository writing. Newspaper articles can also fall into thiscategory, along with encyclopedias and reports.

Teach the elements of storytelling. Children in this age-group will need to learnthe basic elements of storytelling. This will give them the tools they need later in life

in order to analyze the things they read.

Elements of storytelling include beginning, middle and end, crisis or climax, andcharacter. These are most easily taught to children when done in tandem withreading a book aloud over the course of a few weeks. This gives you theopportunity to discuss and analyze the text, so that they can see how theseideas work in practice. Solidify these skills by having them write stories of theirown.

Introduce the Five Paragraph Essay. The Five Paragraph Essay includes anintroduction, three body paragraphs (usually argumentative in some way), and a

conclusion. This common form of writing will be used throughout their lives and shouldbe introduced as early as possible.

Introductory assignments could include a review of their favorite toy or game, apersuasive essay about why they should be allowed to eat more candy, or abiography of their favorite family member.

Teach the use of voice. Voice refers to who is “speaking” in a text. Voice can bebut should generally not be mixed within a text. Being able to identify and

manipulate voice will be important for your students to learn, as this will help themanalyze the things they read.

Common voices include first person (heavy use of “I/me”), second person

Method 2 of 4: Teaching Small Children and Preteens


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(heavy use of “you”), and third person (heavy use of names and “they”). Tensecan also be applied to each of these voices, modifying how it sounds and reads.First person example (past tense): “I went for a walk today. My dog, Spike,came with me. Spike likes to go on walks with me.”Second person example: “You went for a walk today. Your dog, Spike, camewith you. Spike likes to go on walks with you.”Third person example: “Sarah went for a walk today. Her dog, Spike, went withher. Spike likes to go on walks with her.”

Avoid setting limits. Especially with elementary age children, try to leave as manydoors open as possible within their exercises and assignments. Children at this

age are very creative (a trait which will be very helpful later in life) and it is better forthem if this creativity is not discouraged or downplayed.

Children will also learn better by being forced to think for themselves, so givingthem opportunities to do that (by leaving assignments and exercisesopen-ended) will help them significantly.

Keep it as fun as possible. Make learning fun. Children will be distracted easily ifthey find their work too boring or unengaging. In fusing learning and play, you will

ensure that your students are engaged and absorbing information.

For example, with middle-school age children you can have them create a gameand then write rules for the game. This will be fun but it will also force them tothink about writing specific language which is also easy to follow.For elementary children, let them write, edit and illustrate their own books. Thiswill work on developing their understanding of story and character, whilesimultaneously improving their ability to form correct sentences with properspelling.

Teach pre- and post-writing process skills. It will be important for children tolearn that there is more to writing that just putting words on a page. Teaching pre-

and post-writing skills will teach children to analyze writing, as well as working to buildtheir language skills.

Outlines are an example of a pre-writing skill. Outlining what they intend to writewill help learners work through logical processes. It will also teach them to thinkof elements of writing (different paragraphs or subtopics) as a unified whole,rather than pieces simply placed next to each other.Editing is an example of a post-writing skill. Editing their own work, as well asthe work of others, will build language skills. This will make your students morecompetent writers, as well as increasing their confidence in their writing. If theyknow how to look for mistakes and correct them, they will be less restrained byfear of failure.

1 Build on earlier skills. Just because your students should have learned basicgrammar or spelling when they were younger does not mean that those skills

should be neglected now. Continue to build on and maintain skills like grammar, spelling,parts of speech, voice, tense and writing style. This will keep their skills sharp, as well ashelping any students who may have fallen through the cracks.

Method 3 of 4: Teaching Teenagers


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Encourage creativity. By this older stage, many people will have a reducedcapacity for creativity. Creative thinking skills, however, lead people to be better

problem solvers and innovators, so such skills should be fostered in any way possible.Writing is one of the best opportunities for students to bring creativity into theiracademics. Encourage them to take new approaches to assignments and methods ofreading.

Emphasize critical thinking. During this time in their lives, children should bedeveloping the skills necessary to prepare them for higher learning. This will

ensure that they have the most opportunities possible. An absolutely necessary skill forhigher education, as well as a vital life skill, is critical thinking. Encourage your studentsto really think about the things they are reading and writing. This will prepare them to doeverything from analyze news stories to participating fully in the political process.

Have your students ask questions about what they are reading. Who wrote thisbook? Why did they write it? Who did they write it for? What impact did theenvironment around them have on the text? There are many questions likethese which can serve to illuminate information hidden within the things theyread.Have your students ask questions about their own writing. Why did I choose thisvoice? Why do I have the opinion I've expressed? Why is this something I careabout? What would I rather be writing? These kinds of questions can lead yourstudents to learn a lot about themselves but it will also help them make moreconscious decisions about the things they write.

Prepare for real, academic writing. If you want your students to have a realopportunity at getting a higher education, they will need to be able to do the more

complex types of writing which are common in colleges, universities, and trainingprograms. This means employing argumentative skills, expressing themselves clearly,using logic, and following proper formats. Give them opportunities to practice these skillswhile pursuing topics that interest them.

Encourage reading. We often become better writers by reading excellentexamples of the craft. Get your teens reading well written, classic literature. Give

them books in widely varying styles so that they can see differences in voice, descriptionand word choice. They should be given older works which remain classic, in order to seewhy certain techniques are timeless and hold wide appeal. They should also read newermaterial, so that they have solid models to build on for their own writing.

This will have the added benefit of often expanding a student’s vocabulary.Encourage them to look up any word they don’t know. This will help give themthe adult vocabulary which is often a mark of a good education, which will helpthem exponentially in further academic and professional environments.

Teach careful word choice. Many inexperienced writers will often use far more orfar fewer words than they need to. Guide them until they learn to balance

description, dialogue, detail and information. This is a very difficult skill to learn and willtake time as well as a great deal of practice.

Get overly wordy writers to learn what should be included and what is justoverkill. This will often be a wealth of adjectives or repetitive sentences. Showthem how to weed out extras and get their sentences down to the basics.A smaller portion of writers will have a hard time getting descriptive and specificenough. Teach them to remove themselves and approach their writing with a listof requirements. Could this be understood by someone entirely new to thesubject? Could someone come to a specific page and be able to follow along?Give them exercises, such as having to write an entire page describing an


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apple, to improve their skills.

Develop handwriting skills. An important skill for teens to develop is adult-levelhandwriting. While rounded, uneven characters with childish shapes are

acceptable for beginning students, teens will want to develop a more “adult” appearanceto their handwriting if they want to be taken seriously in future academic andprofessional endeavors.

Give teens lots of opportunity to practice their handwriting. Most assignmentsare typed these days and this removes a student’s chance to improve theirhandwriting. Require shorter assignments to be handwritten or find other waysfor them to spend time improving their skills.Encourage legibility, even lettering, and clean lines. The writing doesn’t need tobe in cursive in order to look adult and professional, it simply needs to beprecise. When teens excel at this, reward them. If they struggle, show themwhat needs to be improved and give them opportunity to fix mistakes.Give handwriting exercises as minor extra credit. Repeated lines of the sameletter will give students great practice and allow them to easily seeimprovements and become acquainted with appropriate gestures.

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Simplify. Adults should learn literacy in many of the same ways as a child would.These are basic building blocks and should not be skipped, just because they are

simplistic. Streamline the learning process by giving your students the most basic skillsso that they will be prepared for the more complex ones.

Build trust. Because there is such a social stigma attached to adult illiteracy, youwill absolutely have to develop trust with your students. Do not judge them, do not

make them feel stupid, do not criticize them for mistakes and be patient with them at alltimes.

Most of all, show them that you make mistakes too. Show them when you don’tknow things. Let them see you look a word up in a dictionary, to find its spellingor meaning. Let them see you ask for help when you need it, such as if you areunsure of the grammar of a sentence. Modeling behavior in this way will showyour students that not knowing something is not a sign of stupidity or weaknessof character.

Build self confidence. Build their self confidence. Illiterate adults are oftenashamed of themselves for not knowing how to read or write. Building their

confidence will encourage them to take risks without fear of mistake or rejection. Doingthat is essential to the learning process. When your students do well, tell them so. Whenyour student makes a mistake, emphasize any way in which they were right or actinglogically before showing them how to do it correctly.

Foster passion. People who love something will always put more work into it anddo it better at it than those who are doing something they don’t like. Give your

students a reason to love what they are doing. Men might enjoy being able to readsports stories or game descriptions, where women might enjoy reading about beauty tips

Method 4 of 4: Teaching Adults


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or how to make their own clothes and accessories.

Build skills to correct levels. Slowly move them from the basic skills to the higherlevels, as outlined in the teen section. With time they will reach a skill level

appropriate with their age. This will significantly improve their work prospects as well astheir confidence.

When teaching letters, try to break it up in terms of height lines. Usethe concept of headline, belt line, and foot line to teach when lettersshould be anchored, as well as where short letters should end and tallletters should end.

Teach writing skills workshop-style. This will create the mostopportunity for your students to learn. Model the skill which you aretrying to teach and and then let them try it for themselves. When theyare done, go back in to coach them on what they did right and how theycan improve.

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