How to become a good writer

[Anonymous]

English is not my first language. Even though I got all As in English subject back at college, but I am not a good writer. I use simple sentence structure, and no way I can write a book. How to promote ES kid to be a good writer? He loves to read graphic comic book and watch screentime. I don’t think it will help much. Does kid become a better writer by just reading more books ? Or do they have to practice writing? He is creative and imaginative, does kid needs to write them down as thoughts ?

[Anonymous]

Read well-written books.

Keep a journal.

Seek feedback from teachers on assignments.

Always revise; never turn in the first draft of an essay. There are editing checklists for kids.

[Anonymous]

The best tool for better writing is a class where the student writes, the teacher marks it up, the student rewrites, and so forth until the work is as good as it can get. Repeat often.

You may have an additional challenge trying to do this at home (or perhaps not); in that event, a tutor might help.

[Anonymous]

Read all sorts of books from different types of authors, genres. I used to write for fun too, my school had a writing club in elementary and we would write a chapter each week and share/critique. A large part of of writing is also knowing what you're going to say, how you want to say it, and planning it out in your head before you commit it to paper. So you can cheat by outlining your thoughts, even for fiction and then putting it together. Read and revise as if it's your first time reading the paper.

PS - my parents spoke poor English and I didn't have writing tutors. Did not hold me back at all.

[Anonymous]

It’s a slaughter game ceo

[Anonymous]

Read, read, and read more. It's the best way to learn good sentence structure. Dialogue (i.e. comics) doesn't help as much as narrative b/c it is usually very simple sentence structure. It's really hard to teach/explain. Exposure is the best way - if they read enough, they will just recognize what good structure (and vocabulary) looks and sounds like.

I failed to enforce this strongly enough w/ my kids (now in HS) and they are paying the price. I write for a living and they really struggle.

[Anonymous]

By virtue of your kid growing up in the US and going to school here, he'll be a better writer than you eventually.

I got better at writing by ... writing. I wrote a blog for several years and my writing improved dramatically. But this has to be self-driven.

If YOU want to be a better writer, go take a creative writing class, or get a book of prompts and start writing each day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The best tool for better writing is a class where the student writes, the teacher marks it up, the student rewrites, and so forth until the work is as good as it can get. Repeat often.

You may have an additional challenge trying to do this at home (or perhaps not); in that event, a tutor might help.

This is 100% accurate.

But OP, lots of elementary school kids are "bad" writers. I was always a good writer but I didn't get really good until high school when I got lucky and had an amazing teacher who did just what PP said. It's okay if your child can't write all that well in elementary school. If you see during middle school or especially during freshman year that they aren't getting many writing assignments, that's when you should consider outside help, IMO.

[Anonymous]

My kid took a creative writing class.

[Anonymous]

READ.

READ for fun. Read to relax. Read before bed.

Then READ some more.

Strong correlation between the two.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The best tool for better writing is a class where the student writes, the teacher marks it up, the student rewrites, and so forth until the work is as good as it can get. Repeat often.

You may have an additional challenge trying to do this at home (or perhaps not); in that event, a tutor might help.

I don't think this is true for elementary. It comes later. For now, I'd focus on reading.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The best tool for better writing is a class where the student writes, the teacher marks it up, the student rewrites, and so forth until the work is as good as it can get. Repeat often.

You may have an additional challenge trying to do this at home (or perhaps not); in that event, a tutor might help.

I don't think this is true for elementary. It comes later. For now, I'd focus on reading.

DP. Why don’t you think it’s true for elementary?

[Anonymous]

Verbs. Use verbs.

[Anonymous]

This is a fantastic book. It’s aimed for students, but adults can learn from it as well!

While reading is fantastic, actual writing instruction is necessary - grammar, sentence structure, building paragraphs, learning how to organize ideas, etc. Reading alone usually isn’t sufficient.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is a fantastic book. It’s aimed for students, but adults can learn from it as well!

While reading is fantastic, actual writing instruction is necessary - grammar, sentence structure, building paragraphs, learning how to organize ideas, etc. Reading alone usually isn’t sufficient.

Oops- forgot to post the link:
The Writing Revolution: A Guide to Advancing Thinking Through Writing in All Subjects and Grades https://a.co/d/3wP5dbL