How to Make More Students Enjoy Writing

Everyone has had the experience of writing something just because they were required to do so. If we were honest with ourselves, we would admit that no matter how much we tried, what we ended up producing, more likely than non, was lackluster and barely fit the requirements of the assignment at best. When confined to the restraints of normal convention, writing quickly becomes a miserable chore. If this practice is continued for years at a time, most people will dread writing and their writing will become dreadfully predictable. Freewrites can change that. Instead of every word being hampered by concerns about spelling, grammar, and requirements, with freewrites, the writer is allowed to say whatever they wish, however they wish. If you want to write in times new roman 100 pt. font, you can. If you want to write with each word in a different color, you can. If you want to forgo punctuation or have a period after every letter, every other letter, or mixed in throughout so that your paper looks like a sea of 107 Dalmatians, you can. 

That sounds very ‘freeing’ :P (you can add emoticons too(and as many parentheses (inceptions (as your heart desires))) to just write what I want and not be concerned about grammar, or spelling or anything. However, strict grammar enthusiasts, concerned forward-look parents, and Windsor tie-wearing administrators and professors everywhere, will ask, ‘What good will come of this?’ Plenty. Boring, dull, drab, flat, lifeless, listless, placid, predictable, sluggish, simple, slow, tedious, and uneventful as reading the thesaurus entry for dull. Those are both the adjectives that could describe both the typical writing assignment prompt and the papers that are in response to it. One of the problems is that students aren’t interested, but even when they are, students often want to play it safe so as not to loose points due to grammar. The teacher hopefully doesn’t anticipate the result of their ‘correct’ English emphasis, but nevertheless, students loose their writing voice in the pursuit of A’s and B’s.

With Freewrites, instead of hiding behind conventions and ‘standard’ English, students must be vulnerable to actually write meaningfully and insightfully. In the long run, if teachers lessen the emphasis on grammar and ‘standard’ English, then students will write better and probably make grading more enjoyable for the reader as well. At the very least, freewrites should be regularly incorporated into English curriculum. If that happens, then the number of students who hate writing will decrease, and the overall quality of what students produce will increase.

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