How I Think Writing Should Be Taught
Writing has never been something I’ve ever enjoyed. In school I focused on all the rules I was being taught. To be honest, I never realized that essays were a way to express your opinion, argument of agreement, or disagreement. The process of writing was presented to me in such a strict way that I felt trapped by it. I don’t remember ever producing a piece of writing that held any personal opinions. The focus appeared to be on how well I was able to read and retain enough to be able recite the information back and use proper grammar and meticulous spelling. What I did learn was how to memorize and mimic what the teacher required. All my assignments were predetermined by the curriculum being taught. It was easy for me to do research on a subject and produce summaries in the required format. The fact that I always made good grades on the assignments, indicated to me that either I was doing it right, or worse, that the teacher did not even read it for content, but just for structure, punctuation, spelling and length. Because of that experience, I didn’t grasp the art of expression through writing.
How I was taught to write left me with such little confidence in what I had to say that it always became what I perceived others wanted me to write. I was distracted by the thought of someone reading what I wrote and how it would make them perceive me. I was unable to create an argument or express agreement or disagreement. There was always the fear that what I had to say was insignificant. Unfortunately, because I was so preoccupied in getting the all the rules correct, I lost any opinions I had and how to present them. In the article “The Importance of Writing Badly,” Bruce Ballenger discusses that however important the rules are, it is far easier to teach a student with an open mind than one that is clouded by the rules; “Concise, clear writing matters of course, and I have a responsibility to demand it from my students. But...