2008-8-4 | 如何提高学生的写作技巧
2. The four aspects to develop student's English writing skill 1
2.1 Letting students have a clear idea of the requirements for English writing. 1
2.2 Guiding students to know what they should do in the stages of writing process. 1
2.3 Letting students master the ways of developing paragraphs. 3
2.3.2 Development by process. 4
2.4 Letting students master the ways to do evaluation in their writing. 5
2.4.1 Modifying their purpose. 5
2.4.2 Choosing summative comments. 5
1. Introduction
Nowadays, different forms of writing, including expository (descriptive, explanatory, and persuasive), poetic, and narrative, are used to meet different social study goals. By using a variety of writing forms, students will maintain their interest in social studies and writing (Walley 1991). Writing gives students the opportunity to reflect on what they have just read or discussed (Abel, Hauwiller, and Vandeventer1998). Writing can also help students understand concepts and attain knowledge. Writing is a kind of thought activity and is a way for students to express their thoughts. The development of student's writing skill is not only beneficial to cultivate their ability of thought and expression, but also useful to judge the teaching result. The ability of English writing is one of most important factors in English study. So to develop student’s English writing skill is very important.
2. The four aspects to develop student's English writing skill
2.1 Letting students have a clear idea of the requirements for English writing
When the teacher teaches the students to write, he or she should let them have a clear idea of what good writing is. Good writing is well organized so that the argument is clear to read through. Good writing is relevant to the topic at every stage, shows awareness of target readership and takes account of the likely attitude of reader to the content of writing. Good writing is fluent, easy to read and well presented on the page. The writer should do all the things—writing the title, leaving margins, indenting, capitalizing, and dividing words according to generally accepted rules. The teacher should demand students to write carefully, neatly and clearly, and try to make as few mistakes as possible. Before handing in the writing, they proofread it once or twice, because they may need to make some corrections and changes. If the students always work in this way, they are sure to make progress.
2.2 Guiding students to know what they should do in the stages of writing process
We have the logical steps when we do many things, as building a house we at least have four steps: formatting the house on the paper; building the foundation of the house; building the walls and housetop; decorating the house. In English writing, the writing process usually consists of five stages typically referred to as ①prewriting，②drafting, ③revising, ④editing, ⑤sharing.
In social studies, the teacher may want to give students a board topic and allow them to write on a subtopic in which they are interested. In the prewriting stage, the teacher establishes a purpose for the writing and gives students time to think about their individual topics. Each student brainstorms to gather her or his collected ideas and thoughts about the topic. The student may brainstorm with another student to share information and to formulate questions for which they may both want to find answer.
When students begin to write, the teacher can ask students to think about all the questions that they should ask themselves before they start to write. For example:
—What do I need to find out that I do not know before I start to write? Where will I get this information?
—Who am I writing for? What impression do I want to make on my reader?
—What are the main points I want to make?
—How should I organize my material?
—What conclusion do I want to reach?
Nowadays, with the development of science and technology, there are many ways for our students to get information.
The actual writing of the initial draft of the paper begins when most or all of the research has been completed. As the students write, it is best if they skip every other line so that they will have enough room for revising later. Some students may refer to the draft as sloppy copy so that everyone will know that the focus is on content, not mechanics, which they will address in the next stage. In the drafting stage, the teacher should stress content and make no mention of mechanics or spelling.
The revising stage occurs when the initial draft is complete and the students reread what they have written. During this stage, the students read the draft, cross out words and phrases and replace them with other words and phrases, and circles misspelled words and then correct them. During this stage, the students try to view the piece as a reader would. This involves asking question: Is this clear? Is it interesting to read? Is it well organized? Are the facts accurate?
Editing is the stage in which the piece is polished before sharing takes place. Some teachers have the students exchange papers and edit each other's writing. Other teachers encourage effective editing by having students, particularly those for whom writing is difficult, read their work out loud to themselves. After making all of these, the students recopy their papers. This ensures that the paper not only look nice but also are easier to read. When students use computer for writing, spell checkers and grammar checkers are useful in their editing. But in real situation, for example, in our examination, the teacher often demands students complete a piece of writing in a certain limited time, maybe it restrains their revising and editing.
The last stage of the writing process is that of sharing. In this stage each student shares his or her writing with the class or members of their group. When the piece or writing is presented, each student should find something positive to say about it. This helps them to trust among classmates. It is important to note that this stage allows students to learn from each other. Thus, student should be encouraged to ask questions of the writer after the presentation. This also enhances the writer's self-esteem and self-confidence. Having written a piece, the student has expanded his or her knowledge in that particular area.
2.3 Letting students master the ways of developing paragraphs
The writer should understand that a paragraph should give the reader a felling of completeness. This does not mean that every paragraph has to be long. A simple topic naturally requires fewer words than a more complex one. There are so many writing guidebooks, which introduce us many ways to develop the paragraph. For example, development by time, place, process, detail…. Here, I mainly talk about three important and useful ways for our teachers.
Paragraphs need to be planned. First, ask your students to think of the topic or theme or main idea, and express it in a complete sentence (topic sentence). Then ask them to think of the detail or examples or facts that may be used to support or explain the main idea. Arrange them in a logical order, and you have a rough plan of the paragraph. Suppose the students are to write a paragraph on Animal, and the topic sentence is “We should protest the animals”, they may have the following points:
⑴Many scientists kill the animal in their experiment.
⑵Animals are so lovely.
⑶Animals will feel pain in the experiment.
⑷Animals have the same right as human beings.
On reading the four points again, they may find that the fourth point more attractive to the topic. Now the students can begin to write.
When the teacher demands the students to write something to explain how something is done. These papers usually follow a chronological sequence and give a step-by-step description. As the steps must occur one after another, the exact order in which they are carried out is most important. For example, the reading material in unit 6 of Senior English Book: The Manners at Dinning Party. The Writer gave us the clear sequence: the starter—main course—drinking—the changes of manner.
In middle school, the teacher often asks students to write about story or recount an event, the easiest and clearest way is to describe things in order of time: earlier things are mentioned before later things, the first thing first and the last thing last. For example, the students often have some trouble in writing the biographical notes of someone; they think it is so complex. The teacher can guide students do this kind of writing by the sequence of time, then add the event on each time. Look at the following passage:
Merry Steep was born in a small village in
2.4 Letting students master the ways to do evaluation in their writing
Evaluation is also called assessment, which means the act of assessing. Why should the teacher guides students to master the ways to do evolution? Because evaluation can help students check and rethink what they have written and make their writing more excellent. Hereby I will introduce three ways to help students do evolution for their writing.
This is an activity which you can introduce while your students are engaged in a writing task which fully specified for them. What should the teachers do in this activity? First when your students are halfway through a piece of writing, ask them to stop and look again at the task description in front of them. Ask them to think for two or three minutes about a way in which their writing would be more effective if their tasks were slightly modified. Perhaps there is some new piece of information which should be included but which was not specified in the original task description. Perhaps if they add more information in their writing, their writing would be more effective. Then ask the students to submit the revised task description together with their work so that your summative comment can take into account the way they changed direction in the course of their writing.
2.4.2 Choosing summative comments
In this activity, the students are asked to choose what appropriate objective comments for their own writing. The purpose of this activity is to help the students to take responsibility for the quality of their own work by becoming its judges rather than by leaving it to you to make the judgment
The first time you do this activity, you will need to make a list of 15-20 comments that the students might expect to receive on their own writing. A good way to do this is to ask them look through their exercise books and readout summative comments, which they have received for previous work. Adapt any that are too particular so that they make the point in a more general way. Write each comment on the board and ask the students to copy it down. Be ready to add some typical summative comments of your own. After the teacher has made a list on the board, and then ask the students to choose two summative comments from the list, the one, which they expect you to give them, and the one, which they hope you might give them. They write these two comments at the end of their piece of writing before handing in. When you return the students' work, you will need to comment on the appropriacy of the summative comments chosen by the students for their own work. Do not be afraid to partially agree with one comment only and to make additional comments of your own. It is a good idea to ask the students to work in groups of three and add any new summative comments any of them has received to their existing list. When they next hand work in, they will then have a longer list to choose from.
One thing every writer knows at whatever level they are writing is whether or not they feel pleased with their work. The teacher should do like this: ask each student to spend two or three minutes deciding how satisfied they are with the piece of writing they are about to hand in. Or the teacher can ask students to do pair work like this: each should tell the other how satisfied they are with their writing and explain why. Partners should help each other to clarify their reasons for how they feel. Ask each student to write a two-or three-sentence comment about the extent to which they are satisfied with their writing at the end of their piece of work and to hand the work and comment in to you. They should indicate what they think is good and not good about their writing.
3. Conclusion
Writing is one of the basic factors to learn English, it is undoubtedly very important. As an English teacher, mastering some teaching methods to develop student's English writing skill is our duty. This paper is only concerned a few aspects in developing student's English writing skill. When we teachers teach the English writing, firstly we should make the students understand the basic requirements of English writing, let them know what an excellent piece of writing is. Then give students some suggestions on how to do writing well through showing them the stage of writing and the ways of developing the paragraphs. At last, it is necessary to let them do assessment for their writing. Maybe someone will argue that the ways in my paper are so difficult and theoretical for our students in our teaching. Someone may think that the students in middle school who do not have enough vocabulary, it is extraordinary for them to finish a piece of paper according to the teacher's demand, for example, the sentences should be in order, the handwriting should be clear. It is impossible for the teacher to demand the students do prewriting, even do assessment. Indeed, writing is very difficult; an American writing teacher describes writing as one of the most complex intellectual and emotional processes a person engages in. Here, I want to expound my idea from following three points. First I had considered this fact before I began to compose my paper, and my paper is only about the English methods for the teacher. Second, I do not mean the teacher should teach the writing according to my paper step by step. I just think that as an English teacher, he or she may have much sense about how to develop the student's writing skill when teaches writing. Last but not least, frankly, I am just a student of English major in Normal College, and I only have a little teaching practice in a short period, maybe the methods in my paper is only theoretical, but my paper will be useful if the teacher applies them in teaching practice.
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