Is your HS student a good writer?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DC has taken Hon English and is in AP seminar. A grades across the board. DC is not a good writer! This is evident from their college essays. Spelling, grammar, punctuation, vocabulary are all fine. But sentence organization is off and many sentences don’t say anything. They are fillers. What can we do to help before college?

One possible approach, if your DC wants to learn to write better:

Subscribe to a print daily paper and have your DC leaf through it every day .

Ask your DC to make an outline of a letter responding to one infuriating article per day.

Have your DC draft a letter to the editor based on each outline as quickly as possible.

Make your DC cut the number of words in each first draft by 50% without taking out many interesting facts or arguments.

For extra credit, try to find an editor let go by a nearby media organization and pay the editor to mark up drafts of some of the letters as if the letters were going to go into the Post or Times. Have the DC rewrite the drafts based on the editor’s notes.

[Anonymous]

IB Literature is the main reason my child was ready for college writing. I’m very grateful she registered for that course!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, I doubt they would be if they were not IB students.

The diploma programme curriculum encourages writing, and their teachers really helped them improve their writing skills.

Agree, IB creates strong writers. Even in IB math classes, students are expected to write! But for OP this isn't a lot of help since OP's child is clearly HS age and in AP. To the OP, I'd recommend more writing. Reading more is key, yes, but writing is a muscle--you have to exercise it to strengthen it. Since kids generally won't take too well to parents requiring extra writing practice, I'd see if there is writing help available at school. My DC was part of her HS English department's peer tutoring program where students who were good writers worked with students who wanted to practice more. Anything like that at your kid's school?

[Anonymous]

Mine is a good writer because I switched him from a top rated public ES to a Catholic MS. The straight As went away immediately. It took 2-3 yrs for him to be taught proper spelling, grammar, punctuation, sentence structure, etc. His teachers wouldn't accept his lame attempts and made him rewrite nearly everything. They were liberal with a red pen. They would literally go through simple paragraphs with a red pen and make him rewrite it on the spot until it met their standards. Once he got it through his head that he couldn't hand in the same crap he did in public school, he started caring about his work. Lots of 5 page papers in 8th-9th grade and he learned the formula.

[Anonymous]

My daughter is a fantastic writer. She reads a lot (though she was not an early, competent reader by any means!) which has helped grow her vocabulary. She had fantastic elementary school teachers who taught grammar, writing fundamentals, poetry, and critical thinking. Then her high school subjects and college majors were writing-heavy. All combined to make her writing very eloquent, fluid, and correct.

[Anonymous]

Pulled him out of public after 8th grade and put him in a Jesuit Catholic hs. They transformed his writing. He was an excellent writer by the time he graduated and is getting great comments on his papers in college (Ivy)—excellent, very strong paper!!, etc

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Mine is surprisingly good. I edit writing of lawyers for a living so I see a lot of writing. I hadn’t read my DD’s for years until college essays which she started near the end of 11th grade. I was impressed.

I thought the AP writing course in MCPS was excellent. There was a lot of self evaluation and good teacher feedback.

What AP course is that?

DP but probably AP Lang, or possibly AP Research.

[Anonymous]

No. His sibling is a lovely writer and went through the same school system. But it’s just not his thing. He has to learn to do better than he currently does, though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Mine are beautiful writers, both creative writing and analytical papers. Reading a lot helps I believe, as they both read independently before the 4th birthday and are avid readers outside of school. Their k-12 prep is partly the reason: research papers start in middle school, by high school they are writing 8-10pp with ease. We were amazed when advisors shared the google doc portfolios at the end of each semester. Peers help each other edit starting in middle too, which adds to learning. I was not a great writer compared to peers at my ivy and I do believe it was my rural WV public school system that fell off the mark. They are excelling in college, coming in more prepared than the average, though rest assured others catch up and learn writing college, it will work out

where did your kids go to HS?

A top private school in the DMV area, then to ivies.

[Anonymous]

I’m encouraged by the posts saying IB will get them there. My DS is a sophomore and definitely above average in writing (able to crank out A essays quickly), but I have a hard timing knowing how good a 15 year old should be at this point. I work with a lot of highly educated people who are awful writers and I don’t want my kids to grow up to be one! DS enjoys reading and plans to do the IB diploma next year, so I guess there’s hope for him.

My younger DC is a smart kid but not much of a reader. I worry about his writing and don’t know that his public school education will get him to where I’d like him to get. I’ve thought about enrolling them both in some kind of writing course but don’t know where to start.

[Anonymous]

No, and both DH and I have written for a living. Her writing has a strong voice and some good turns of phrase, but the technical aspects are weak.

[Anonymous]

I have one terrific writer, and one who struggles. My good writer was an avid reader, went to a private elementary school and got excellent instruction in grammar, vocabulary, and sentence construction. It made the difference.

[Anonymous]

Variety in reading is key! It helps them understand flow, voice, and style.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Variety in reading is key! It helps them understand flow, voice, and style.

Many schools use this kind of advice to avoid having to try to teach students how to write.

Certainly, reading is helpful. But students who want to learn to write well also need to write a lot, get detailed feedback on at least some of their writing, revise their writing based on the feedback, and simplify their writing by condensing what they’ve written.

[Anonymous]

Read books offline.
Take notes on paper not digital paper with a stylus, but pencil/pen and paper.

Print out drafts and edit by hand as part of the process. Your eyes can see parts and whole at the same time. You focus on what’s on the page and slow your thinking down. Reading work aloud helps too.

Encourage reading stamina to help with attention to detail and an appreciation for aesthetic.