Learning to write

My focus on linguistic accuracy most likely occurred at a young age when I was asked to write rough drafts, second drafts, and final drafts. Those experiences helped teach me how to analyze my work and look for errors. I probably started process oriented tasks in the latter stages of elementary school or middle school. I cannot remember for certain. Most likely I was in the in-between stage for self-editing when these tasks started occurring.

I think the lessons I was taught in editing with process oriented approaches helped me become a better editor. Those lessons definitely helped me become a good enough writer to do well on all my history projects although I think history professors cared more about content. Having said that, I think my grades would have suffered if the form was not good and it interfered with the content. Of course English professors seemed to be more rigid when grading my papers and I understand why. It is their job to fine tune my writing skills. At times I felt somewhat overwhelmed when editing my own paper for an English class so I would seek out a writing tutor. 

My primary experience teaching writing is in history and Spanish classes. Organization and content is my primary concern in history courses although I still point out grammatical errors. Sometimes those grammatical errors interfere with my understanding of the content. In my Spanish classes my focus is probably the opposite. I care more about grammar and spelling than content. I realize content is not going to be great because of the limited vocabulary. Probably the biggest challenge in giving student feedback is striking the right balance in regards to challenging them and being too easy on them. If I am too strict frustration will set in and then they do not learn anything. On the other hand, sometimes students need to be motivated. For example, if I have told the same student several times that you don’t conjugate the second verb in Spanish and they keep making that mistake, it is probably time to get tougher on that student and start counting off for that recurring mistake.

My ideas are congruent with the process approach because I have seen how that approach helped me as a student. I want to really emphasize self-editing and peer editing. The best way for students to become good at self-editing would be through lots of practice so it is important I give them amble opportunities to practice.