Inside Out:Strategies for Teaching Writing Chapter 9

What is Good Writing?

"Quality you know what it is, yet you don't know what it is." Many people often feel this way when it comes to any art because art is so subjective. What moves one person doesn't always move another and so the art of grading writing is not a simple task that we as writing teachers must do.

According to this chapter the first job of the writing teacher is to find good writing in students' worst writing. They suggest that we skip the criticism and encourage or focus on areas that will do the most good.

Two attributes to good writing:

1. Interesting to read

• has voice of author
• has movement
• has sense of humor
• informative
• inventive: says something new or something old in a new way

2. Technically skillful

• aware of audience
• uses detail, but not too much
• uses words that sing: rich in imagery, rhythm and repetition, filled with word play
• has form
• makes sense
• observes convention of mechanics and usage (small portion of what good writing is)
• Its what you and others like.

When grading or evaluating writing there are three questions to consider:

• What do you think? Is it honest?
• Does it say enough?
• Does it say more than it needs?

As a high school English teacher overburdened with stacks of essays to grade everyday, I have difficulty focusing on the positive in my students' writing. I usually focus on the parts that they need to improve upon: generally focusing on their ideas and organization. Ideally I would remark on what they did well, but when crunched for time and so many essays to grade, I typically just take the time to write what they need to fix. I do note that this is not a good habit and hope to be more mindful of looking at what they do well.

On the other hand I am not sure if I can "skip the criticism" because I feel without it how else can the meet the standards or make their writing better? How else will the become interesting or skillful writers. I also don't like to think of my comments as criticisms, but suggestions on what they can do to make their writing better, keeping the three questions at the end of the chapter in mind.