Write for Real

My 8th grader wrote some required sentences the other day, and he did fine. They were long enough, they made sense, and they were humorous. But they weren't his idea; so although he was willing, he wasn't excited. The next day, he sent an email to Lego asking them a couple questions. Now that excited him. This morning he said something entirely unexpected. "This sounds strange, but I like writing if I know what I'm going to say."

Think about that. Have you ever been sitting in a class and you had a great comment that you just had to share? Contrast that to sitting in a class and being afraid the instructor would ask you a question. It may just be the same kind of fear and stress that our kids feel when we ask them to write something for us. We need to put ourselves in their places and imagine how they feel.

I know it's not always possible to have our kids writing only things that they want, but we can do it more often than we think. I try to keep assignments at a minimum. I find that my kids will have reasons to write often enough. And when they have a real audience and a real purpose, they know what to say and the writing is a higher quality than if they are to just writing a narration of something they've read. Talking about what they're reading is entirely sufficient for narration; why make them write it? My kids have written emails, texts, freewrites, cards for family members, poems, letters, notes about talks at church, plans for comedy sketches, titles and descriptions for an Etsy shop, plans for having a farm, and even a book (which we're self-publishing shortly).

When I do need to assign writing, I give them as much freedom as I can. I also try to make it interesting based on what I know about that child. I'm having my daughter do a research project for the next few months, where she'll have to get volunteers to do something for an extended period of time, get their responses, come to a conclusion, compare it to current data, and write a report to present to us orally and send to her brother at college. She is so much more interested in this project than when I have said to research a topic and just write the report. And frankly, I know the writing will be more interesting to read. She will have had a personal experience with the topic. She'll know what she's going to say, and I agree with my son; she'll like writing it if she knows what she's going to say.

So your job is to find or let your kids find real reasons to write for a real audience. How about a few ideas? Blog posts, emails or letters to grandparents, thank you notes, poetry contests or readings, reviews on an actual website.

Passing Notes

Sometimes kids are reluctant to write because their skills aren't keeping up with all the fascinating things they want to say and the creative vocabulary they use. We can let them know that we value what they say even without perfect mechanics. In fact, we need to let them know.

Why not tear a piece of paper in half and write a quick note to your child while you're sitting on the couch beside him? Hand it to him with a giggle, and he'll probably want to write one back. Most of us would. There's something playful that happens when we write notes back and forth instead of talking. The torn paper is an unspoken signal that the note can be messy and imperfect.

If you don't want to sit next to each other writing notes, you could put them in your child's room for him to find and respond to, or use a dry erase board to leave each other messages or jokes. Just make sure he doesn't feel like getting it right is more important than saying something fun.

On page 160 of Peter Elbow's Vernacular Eloquence, he discusses inkshedding that a couple Canadian writing teachers came up with. They taught a writing class in which there was no speaking. Only writing. All communication in the class had to be written. Their premise was to show that writing is two-way communication and to infuse into writing, the feeling we get when we speak. That we can say what we want to say and the words are gone after they've served their purpose. If we can write this way, we feel like what we write is "no big deal" and we can get to our meaning more easily.

Our older kids call this texting. You know that texting is not full of proper punctuation and correct spelling. If we know the writing is going to be thrown out after it has served its purpose, we can relax and just say what we mean. It's true for all of us, not just our kids.

So your job is to pass notes with your children, and see how much more fun they have with writing. And I'm not worried, I expect you'll teach your kids correct mechanics eventually.

Read it Aoud

When I've written something and I want to revise it quickly and efficiently, I read it aloud. I can tell almost immediately what I need to do. We know that it's far easier to tell how our writing "sounds" if we can actually hear it.

In Peter Elbow's book Vernacular Eloquence, he says (on page 222), "If people read aloud carefully each sentence they've written and keep revising or fiddling with it till it feels right in the mouth and sounds right in the ear, the resulting sentence will be clear and strong."

When I'm revising my own work or critiquing or editing for someone else, and I come to a difficult sentence, I always read it aloud. Sometimes I read it to someone else in the room for the reason that Dr. Elbow mentions on page 220 of the same book: "Readers will find your writing clearer and more inviting when your language is comfortable to say aloud. When it is, readers don't have to work as hard to understand your words. They seem to hear the meaning come up off the page."

We master oral language at an astonishingly young age never having learned any grammar rules, and we can use that to aid us in our writing. We sometimes get so bogged down with rules and requirements when we write that we forget about the communication. If we link writing back to our most natural form of communication, of course our meaning will be clear.

Your job is to give your child the support he needs to feel free to read aloud in order to revise his writing. You can model this by reading your rough pieces aloud to him and asking him how they sound. Give him practice making those decisions by helping you with your writing. Invite him into your process and let him experience it.

Say the Wrong Thing

In his book, Writing Without Teachers, Peter Elbow talks about how we can find the right words when we write. He says on page 26, "It is simply a fact that most of the time you can't find the right words till you know exactly what you are saying, but that you can't know exactly what you are saying  till you find just the right words. The consequence is that you must start by writing the wrong meanings in the wrong words; but keep writing till you get to the right meanings in the right words. Only at the end will you know what you are saying."

I have found myself badly wanting to write a thing, and feeling like it has to sit so long in my head before I can get it out. And sometimes it does have to sit first; but I wonder if I were more willing to say the wrong thing in the wrong way, if I could get at the right way sooner.

How much harder is it for our kids, who may not have any idea what they want to say to start with? It comes down to free writing. Not only is it free of rules, but it's truly freeing. It frees the ideas that are locked in the minds of our kids, it frees them of fears, it frees them of having to say the right thing!

Every piece of writing can actually start as a freewrite. Or how about just a conversation? When we are in conversation, we may say the wrong thing and then change our minds and correct ourselves. Conversation is so forgiving. We just change what we're saying in the moment. Easy.

So your job is to show your kids that it really is fine to say the wrong thing first in order to get to the right thing. You can do that by modeling it. Do freewriting with your kids and read aloud what you've written. Then make changes to yours, and let them see your thought process. Something like, "That's not really the word I mean here, maybe I should try this word instead." Look up the words in the dictionary to get the full meanings, so you can get it boiled down to the most accurate word choice.

Writing Project Ideas

Just a quick idea for you today. When we do a writing project in our homeschool, we usually take several weeks so the kids can mull over the information and decide what they want to say. (See the post "No Writing Required" for more on this.)

Choose one of the following project ideas to work on as a family, and let me know how it goes. At our house if we try to go to fast, we get bunched up inside and the words won't flow; but if we stretch it out too much, we lose momentum. So I suggest about a month for the projects, but stay in tune with your kids so you'll know if they want to move faster or if they need more time. You'll know.

*Come up with an advertising campaign for a real or fictitious product. Write commercials (and record them on video if you want), make billboards on poster board, come up with a scheme like giving free samples, write a jingle, write a newspaper or magazine ad.

*Interview someone about their job or something they've done or been through. Make an audio or video recording of the interview. Make a list of questions, but also be ready to think of questions as the interview progresses. Make a news story out of it, and present it on video or to an audience (including the subject of the interview).

*Create a real estate ad for your house. Write a description of the house and each room in it. Take pictures and use the descriptions as captions. Make a video tour which includes the descriptions. Don't forget the yard and even the neighborhood.

These ideas can be adapted for any age. You can do one project as a group or each person can do their own version of it. Either way, working together increases creativity.


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No Writing Required

In William Zinsser's book, On Writing Well, he tells about an adult writing class he taught "in which no writing was required." (page 255) He told his students to think of a place they wanted to write about and come prepared to talk bout how and why they could do it. They would discuss it as a group and help each other figure out what might work. They never actually had to do the writing. He was setting them free from the pressure and letting the process happen. Many students wanted to go on and do the writing, and some did. Even several years later.

Your students need time, like all writers, to find out what they want to say and how to say it. They need to research or read at a comfortable pace instead of rushing to paraphrase some piece of information they haven't digested or don't even care about. The phrase "having something to say" implies ownership. They need to actually know a thing before writing about it. That is, if you want to be interested in reading it.

At least two of my kids have always wanted to change the topic of their papers after they started to research. I used to let it bother me; but I figured out that when they said they couldn't find any information on a topic, that just meant they hadn't found anything interesting enough to want to know.

I don't have the answer to the "topic change" sickness, but I do know it's hard to write what anyone wants to read if you don't own what you're trying to say.

So your job is to give your students time to take in and digest what they want to write about. Let it become part of them like last night's dinner. Trust me, when kids know something, they want to tell you about it. Usually in a lively and engaging way.

Then you can let us check it over for you at MyWritingCheck.com

Voice is Something You Hear

The dictionary lists several definitions for the word voice One of them says, "anything regarded as like vocal utterance in communicating to the mind." I love that definition! When I think of my writing voice, I can hear it. When I read someone else's writing, I can hear their voice. Can't you?

Imagine a world where there is only one writing voice allowed. One voice for everyone. We all have to use correct grammar, correct punctuation, correct spelling, and correct structure at all times. We can't tell who wrote what, because we all sound alike. I might stop reading. I would definitely stop writing!

So why do we sometimes try to fit our children's writing into a perfect structure with perfect grammar, punctuation and spelling? Of course, we want them to know how to do those things; but that takes years. In the meantime, we need to encourage them to say what they want to say, with their own voice. To communicate to our minds. When they feel free to use their voice, their writing will be interesting enough to make it worth cleaning up the technicalities later.

So your job is to hear your child's voice instead of hushing it. Care about what he says (writes), love the way he says (writes) it, and teach "correctness" by using other people's writing as models. I promise that when your child learns some rule of writing, he will be excited to use it. Especially if he knows you're going to love what he's saying. He'll probably use it too much. Then you'll have a different lesson to teach!


Let us help you encourage your child's writing voice at MyWritingCheck.com

Showering is the Hardest Writing

I love old Dick Van Dyke Show episodes. He plays Rob Petrie, a television comedy writer. On one episode he was explaining to his wife Laura, played by Mary Tyler Moore, what writing is.

He said, "Pacing is writing. Looking out the window is writing, brushing your teeth is writing, anything is writing. The hardest writing is showering."

When I'm showering, I have the best ideas. I should take bath tub crayons in there and make notes!

I want you to recognize that your children don't have to be writing to be writing. For example, my son makes Lego stop action videos. Is that writing? He makes up story lines. Occasionally he even takes notes instead of relying on his memory. What about when he tells me all about the statistics he read in the encyclopedia? That's usually quite an explanation, full of words.

And my kids are always making up games and stories to pretend. Yes, they're teenagers, but they crack each other up acting out things they come up with. Complete with disguises! Do you think I ever say to them, "Hey, you need to sit down and write that up so I can go over it and make sure your spelling and punctuation are right."? That would kill it for sure. I'm not about to kill that!

Don't worry, they do write for real. My 17 year old just wrote a book--90 pages. She likes family history and she's dying for a DNA test. So she wrote a story about a young woman that has a DNA test and finds out that she's royalty. Her sister is helping her edit it right now, but after that I'm going to go over it for a "professional" edit. I'm not going to assign a grade at the end. You don't have to always assign a grade. In fact, I rarely give grades for specific projects. I love the freedom not to give a grade. I think you'll love it too as you recognize all the ways your children are writing, and shouldn't be graded for.

So your job is to think about all the ways your kids are thinking of things--they're writing! Then be their loyal reader. Be a fan. You don't grade everything you read from your favorite author; you just read it and love it.

Let us evaluate your child's writing at MyWritingCheck.com

What is MyWritingCheck.com?

MyWritingCheck.com is a writing critique service that can help you evaluate your children's writing. You send us a composition, our writers critique it, and you get it back with plenty of comments about what could be improved and what's already great!

This valuable service can relieve a portion of the stress you feel about your homeschool. You can relax and become a reader for your children's writing. Just enjoy what they have to say without worrying about a technical evaluation. Let us do that. You'll find it eliminates the emotions that are so often connected to writing in your homeschool. No more drama!

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