help my child become a better writer

8/14/2019 Help My Child Become a Better Writer

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Help My Child Become

a Better Writer

Compiled by:


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Table of Contents

Boost My Kid's Writing Skills

Help Find Topic Ideas for My Teen's Writing Assignments

Improve Writing Skills with Fun Family Activities

Help My Teen Edit and Revise Writing Assignments

Help My High School Senior Know How to Write a College Admissions Essay

Why Is Writing Important in a Digital World?

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Help My Child Become a Better WriterDo I need this EduGuide?

Yes, if your kids need help with middle school or high school writing skills or are struggling with writing lessons and assignments.

This EduGuide will also help if you want to encourage a teen who loves writing to further develop his or her skills.

How does it work?

l Quizzes help you know where you stand.

l Articles give you the background information you need to make a decision.

l ShortCuts help you take immediate action. Choose one or go through them all.

What will I learn?

l Why writing continues to be an important skill for everyone

l Activities that will help your teen improve writing skills and develop topic ideas

l How to support your teens writing by teaching editing and revising skills

l College essay tips for your high school student

Quick Solutions

l What can I do in fifteen minutes? Select an activity from the ShortCut "Improve Writing Skills with Fun Family Activities" and have

you and your child (or the whole family) do it at the same time.

l What can I do in an hour? Choose one of the activities from Boost My Kids Writing Skills or Help Find Topic Ideas for My

Teen's Writing Assignments and do the activity together.

http://www.eduguide.org/Parents/Library/Detail/tabid/304/id/2507/Topics-for-Teens-Writing-Assignments.aspxhttp://www.eduguide.org/Parents/Library/Detail/tabid/304/id/2509/Boost-My-Kids-Writing-Skills.aspxhttp://www.eduguide.org/Parents/Library/Detail/tabid/304/id/2516/Improve-Writing-Skills-Fun-Family-Activities.aspx


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Boost My Kid's Writing SkillsWhether your kid is in middle school or high school, writing is important in almost all classes. Help improve kids writing skills using

the following activities:

l Write often. As with any skill, writing gets better the more we do it. Let your kids see you write often and encourage them to

write often, too. At-home writing might include emails, instant messaging, thank-you notes, scrapbook descriptions, diaries,

and whats-for-dinner notes.

l Find different audiences. We write differently for each audience. Encourage kids to expand their range and abilities by writing

for many different audiences. They could try a letter to the editor or to a legislator, a silly story for a younger sibling, or a list of

ten to cheer up a sick friend.

l Have fun. Language play and writing can be fun. Have fun with language yourself and share that sense of play with your

teenager. Point out new words and phrases you come across in the newspaper or on the radio share favorite song lyrics get

creative in naming a new pet or writing humorous gift tags or cards.l Support your budding writer. If your child chooses to share some writing with you, point out specifically what you like best

about the piece. Rejoice in effort, delight in ideas, and resist the temptation to be critical. Maybe youll want to ask them to read

the piece aloud. Feel free to ask questions about parts that arent clear, but leave the answering of those questions to your

child. Make it clear that you are always interested in reading any writings that he wants to share with you.

l Read. While its true we learn to write by writing, we also learn to write by reading. Offer your kids a wide variety of opportunities

to read, both educational and entertaining, and pass on your own favorite authors, novels, and magazines to show them youre

a reader, too. Talk about those things youve read.

l Explore. The funny thing about writing is that it actually helps the writer think. Encourage your child to use writing to think more

deeply about lifequestions, problems, difficult assignments, hobbies, and topics she wants to learn more about.

l Breaking Writers Block. We all have trouble getting started once in a while. If this happens to your young writer suggest he try

brainstorming, jotting lists of ideas, or talking through his thoughts with you or a friend. Sometimes just spending 15 minutes

writing anything and everything (including I dont know what to write.) loosens up the very ideas needed for the piece.

l Take ownership. Good writers know how to make any topic their own. They do that in the way they organize their ideas, in the

examples they choose, and in the angle, as well as by drawing from their own experiences. Encourage your teen to find waysto make the assigned topic his own.

l Edit and revise. Writing is a process of developing and drafting ideas, then revising, and, finally, editing for correct grammar

and spelling. Help your kid see the value of clarifying ideas, drafting, and revising before tweaking the mechanics like spelling

and punctuation.

l Keep a notebook. Provide a special writing folder or notebook for your kid and encourage him to save writings in it. Nothing can

replace the good feeling of reading something we wrote months ago and rediscovering how good it is.

Source: National Council of Teachers of English Guideline, used with permission from the NCTE.



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Help Find Topic Ideas for My Teen's Writing AssignmentsChoosing a Strong Topic Can Help Improve Writing Skills, Grades

Sometimes the most difficult part of a teens writing assignment is figuring out what to write about. If your teen needs essay writing

help, you can point them in the right direction with some of these topic idea generators.

Use Graphic Organizer Writing Tools

Most graphic organizers are based on mind mapping. Mind maps are diagrams that are used to pull ideas out of a central key word.

They can be used for teaching creative thinking skills, for brainstorming ideas, to help classify ideas, and to generate detail for writing.

While there are many types of mind maps and graphic organizer writing tools, try this one for starters: Have your teen write a word atthe top of a paper. The word should be related to the general subject that he is supposed to be writing about (for example: American

colonial history, chemical reactions, literary heroines in the 15th century). Then have her draw four lines down from it and write four

smaller topics (for example: Boston Tea Party, Minutemen, Native American relations, trapping and trade). Then have them choose the

one topic that interests them the most and draw three more lines out that breaks the subject down further. Have them continue this

until they have a topic that is focused and specific. A common problem is choosing topics that are too broad for a typical school writing

assignment.

Use Brainstorming Techniques

There are several brainstorming techniques that can be used to help a teen generate topics for a writing assignment. Three useful

ones include:

l Listing. Select an idea or key term related to the writing assignment. As quickly as possible, list as many items or words that

relate to that topic. Then go back and pick items that might be useful as a topic idea.

l Freewriting. Using an egg timer or a cell phone alarm, set a short time limit such as 10 or 15 minutes. Have your student write

whatever comes to mind on the topic at hand. Have her put the writing away for a little while and then come back to it to pick out

ideas that could be used as a topic.

l Reference Books. Ask your teen to write key ideas or terms from the writing assignment. Then have her use dictionaries,

encyclopedias, thesauruses, or any handy reference work related to the topic to randomly look for entries that trigger useful

ideas. This can also work with an Internet search engine by typing in key related terms.

Pack a Time Capsule for Teen Writing Topics

Ask your teen what she would put in a time capsule that would be opened 20 years from now that would show the future what life is

like now. Then have her look at the list of items and write a short paragraph about why that item would be included. Suggest that sheexpand upon one of those paragraphs for a full-length writing assignment that explores why something is important.

Turn to Photo Albums for Teens with a Visual Learning Style

Pull out a photo album or a coffee table art book. Or have your student type a word relating to the subject into Google and choose the

images results. Encourage him to look through the images and write two or three words per image. Tell him to see whether he can

develop topic ideas from the pictures. For example, a photo of someone playing the saxophone might inspire them to think of such

topics as the history of jazz, how music has helped New Orleans recover from Katrina, music therapy techniques, or the latest

advances in acoustics technology.



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Turn on the iPod for a Teen with an Auditory Learning Style

Have your teen turn on her music player and listen to two or three of her favorite songs. Do the lyrics inspire any topic that interests her

enough to write about? Does it remind her of an event or a place?

Play What If? for High School Writing Assignments

Engage in a back-and-forth game of what if? with your teen. Ask your teen a question that asks what he would do, where she would

go, or who he would want to be. Be as creative and outlandish as you want. Then let your teen ask you a question that starts the same

way. Try to ask topics that are associated with the general subject about which the student has to write. So, for example, if your studentis supposed to write a paper on Shakespeare, you could ask questions like, What would you do if you could rewrite any of

Shakespeares plays? Which of Shakespeares villains would you want to go to an amusement park with? Why? What modern-day

celebrity reminds you most of Portia? After going back and forth a couple times, ask your teen which of the questions most sparked

his interest. Can she think of a writing topic that could be developed from it?

Get Your Teen Writing About Important Causes

What does your teen care about? Are there political, social, or humanitarian causes that he is passionate about? Does she have a

hobby that has long been a major part of her life? Encourage your teen to pick a topic that is related to a cause that is important to him.

Get Essay Writing Help From Websites

There are several Websites designed to help students come up with topic ideas. A few that you might find helpful include:

l Enchanted Learning: Essays for Early Writers

l About.com: 400 Writing Topics

l Creative Writing Prompts

l Write Source

l Research Paper and Argument Topic Ideas

l Animal Rights Activism: Ideas for Writing Assignments

http://www.all-creatures.org/articles/act-students-ideaswrit.htmlhttp://www.tcc.edu/students/resources/writcent/HANDOUTS/writing/restopics.htmhttp://www.thewritesource.com/writing_topics/http://www.creativewritingprompts.com/http://grammar.about.com/od/topicsuggestions/a/causeff07topics.htmhttp://www.enchantedlearning.com/essay/


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Improve Writing Skills with Fun Family ActivitiesWriting doesnt have to be a chore or dreaded homework when you are able to turn it into creative, fun family activities. Encourage a

life-long love of writing by trying some of these family ideas in your home:

The Family that Writes Together...Improves Writing Skills Together

l Mutual Story Telling. Pick up a lined notebook or a notebook that has half a page of lines and half blank. Pick who will start and

then give each person a day to write one page of a story. Then pass the notebook to the next family member who also gets a

day to write a page that extends the story. Continue until the notebook is filled up. Younger children can be encouraged to write

a few sentences and then draw a picture to illustrate the story. Everyone should try to use what others in the family have written

to keep the story going.

l Props Bag. Create a bag with various household props in it. These might include a ball, a wooden spoon, a candle, a wooden

block, a paintbrush, a hat, or anything else that you can find. Give everyone a notebook. Set a timer for fifteen minutes. Then pul

an object out of the bag and have everyone write a one-page story that incorporates that object. When the timer rings, have

everyone read what theyve written.

l Parent Trap. What would happen if you and your child switched bodies for a day? What would each of you do? Pretend that

youve done so and have each of you write about what happens during that day as you go through life as the other person.

l Family Blog. Start a family blog to share information with relatives and friends. Give everyone access to it and try to have each

family member write a blog entry once a week.

Family Home Activities and Games Can Make Writing Fun

l Scavenger Hunts. For rainy day fun, create a scavenger hunt that uses written clues. The clues can be straightforward, rhymed

or written as poems or riddles. You could even try a Haiku Hunt. Get everyone involved by having each family member write at

least three clues.l Family Game Night. Add word games to your game closet and make a habit of playing them as a family night. Some examples

include Boggle, Scrabble, Upwords, Sentence Champs, and Spelldown.

l Scrapbooking. Create a photo album with one photo per page and take turns writing a paragraph about the photo.

l The Plays the Thing. Take a picture book that your child enjoys. Together, rewrite it as a play. You can then perform the play

using puppets or the entire family.

Writing with a Purpose Can Promote Creative Critical Thinking Skills

l e-Writing . Get everyone used to traveling the information highway by sending each other emails and text messages. Model

good writing by using complete sentences and good writing habits when emailing.

l Praise Writing. When youve had a good customer service experience, write a joint thank-you letter praising the service with

each family member contributing a paragraph.

l Pretty Please. Next time your child wants you to buy her something, have her write a persuasive letter. The letter should statewhat she wants, the reasons why she wants it, and why you should buy it for her.

l Family Reporter. Create a weekly family newspaper with family events being written as news stories. Talk about how to write

stories that answer who, what, where, when, why, and how. Encourage each family member to write in the inverted pyramid

style (most important/shocking fact first) and to have at least one quote per story.

l Menu Planning. Have your child create a menu for a meal that youre preparing. Have him describe each item in appetizing

terms and include details about the cooking methods and ingredients.

l Goal Writing. As a family, write individual goals. Work at making them SMART: Simple, measurable, achievable, repeatable,

and trackable. Then write two or three steps that can be taken to reach that goal. Keep a written record of accomplishments

that take each of you closer to your goals.



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Hide Writing Lessons in Short, Fun Activities

l Metaphor Madness. Start a running game with daily metaphors. Start a sentence such as I love you more than and have

each person add a new ending to the sentence each day, such as a Goth teen loves black. Encourage responses that are

silly, unique, and creative.

l Love Notes. Make a habit of writing each other little love notes that are hidden in various places in the house or in backpacks,

lunchboxes, purses, etc. The notes can be short and encouraging. Its writing that is sure to make family members smile.

l You Write the Songs . Pick a favorite song together and write new lyrics for it. You can each pick a different song or work

together by trading off verses. Sing the song together.

Improve Writing Skills by Encouraging Story Writing

l Story Starter. Create a box of story starters. Have your child randomly draw one of the story starters from the box and write an

ending to the story. The level of detail can change with the age and ability of the child. An example might be: On a high hill in

the middle of a lonely village, there lived an old woman with fifty singing turtles. Every time a rainbow appeared in the southern

sky, she and her turtles would trudge down the hill to put on a concert for the villagers. After one of these musical

performances, a small boy came up to her and asked

l Song Journal. Encourage your child to keep a song journal or diary. Instead of the usual diary in which the writer records the

events of the day, start with a song and the lyrics that she heard that day. She can then write what that song reminds her of or

makes her feel. How does the song inspire her?

l Screenwriters R Us. Watch a television show together and then write your own episode together. Or create a new character to

introduce to the show and have your child write the characters backstory or a short biography of the character.

l Video Game Review. Have your child write a review of a video game that he enjoys playing. The review should include a

description of the game and the good points and bad points of it. For an older child, have her design a new video game andthen write a description of it that would teach others how to play it.



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Help My Teen Edit and Revise Writing AssignmentsTake Writing from Good to Great

Once your teen has written a first draft, you can go through these revision steps together, or complete them separately and compare

your results as a way of boosting your teens writing skills. Remind your teen that a marked-up draft is a map that helps take a writing

assignment from good to great!

l Think about the needs of the audience. Before editing a piece of writing, ask yourself who will be reading it. Is it intended for

the general public? If so, technical terms should be defined in plain English. If the audience is made up of scientists, you may

not need to explain scientific terms as completely as you would for a general audience.

l Read the draft aloud slowly and carefully. Its the best way to catch mistakes and find problems. Word processing software

can make even the worst writing lookgood. But youll know that the writing is good when it sounds good. If you stumble over a

word or paragraph when you read it aloud, you probably need to rewrite it. Choose a simple, direct word over a multi-syllableacademic-sounding word whenever you can. Changing word order can make sentences read more smoothly.

l Pay attention to organization. Does information flow logically or do you lose the thread of the argument? Adding paragraph

headings can help make the paper clearer, as can writing transition words and phrases (such as, therefore, in order to, as a

result, to sum up, in conclusion).

l Make sure all paragraphs are complete. Does each paragraph have a main idea, and do all the sentences in the paragraph

support, or tell more about, that idea?

l Look for places where you can add or subtract details. For example, an essay describing why your dog is your best friend

probably doesnt need a description of the town you live in. On the other hand, if you havent included a physical description of

the dog, the reader might lose interest in your story.

l Pay attention to the details. Replace clichs (fairy-tale ending, thinking outside the box, win-win situation), eliminate phrases

that dont say anything (with all due respect, it goes without saying), and edit out unnecessary words (blue in color should be

blue various ways and methods should be ways).

l

Fine tune the beginning and the conclusion. Does the beginning have a hook? A hook is something that makes you want tokeep reading. A question, an interesting quote, a surprise, a bit of dialogue can all make good hooks. If your student needs

ideas, check a few favorite books to see how they begin. Does the essay have a conclusion that sums up its main points?



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Help My High School Senior Know How to Write a CollegeAdmissions Essay

College Essay Tips That Work

Use the following tips to help your teen learn how to write a college admissions essay. The essay doesnt have to mention every high

school success or extracurricular activity (the rest of the college application will do this). Instead, it should show admissions officials

why your kid and their school are a great match.

Choose a Topic

If your teen is struggling to choose an essay topic, have him or her create a chart that lists one outstanding character trait, one interest,

one ability, and one value. Next, have your teen write down a life experience that illustrated this trait/interest/ability/value. Finally, write a

brief description of an outcome or a lesson learned. Heres an example:

Completing this chart should give your teen four good essay topics to choose from.

Connect with the College

In the essay, make sure your teen connects his or her talents and passions to a program or focus of the college (review the college

brochure or Web site for ideas). If, for example, the college has a strong tradition of community outreach and your teen has just

completed a service-learning project, work that information into the essay. Remember: the purpose of the college essay is to convince

the admissions folks that your teen and their school are a perfect match.

Draft the Essay

l Match the essays structure to the topic. Traditional essay formwith an introduction, body, and conclusionworks well for an

essay that defends a position (for example, The U.S. should never negotiate with terrorists). Story, or narrative, form is very

effective in describing a personal experience (for instance, how a teacher changed your life).

l Show rather than tell, by using specific examples and concrete language (words that describe things you can see, hear,touch, feel, and smell).

l Use facts to prove an assertion or support an opinion.

l Keep the writing focused. If the essay seems to drift into a different subject area, it may be that your teen would rather write on

thattopic instead.

Revise and Proofread

l Have your teen read the draft aloud to you. Can you name the main idea and point of view? Does the first sentence grab your

attention? Is there a conclusion and does it summarize the important points?

Trait/Interest/

Ability/ValueExample from Life Outcome/Lesson Learned

Loyalty I stuck by my best

friend when she

injured her knee

I learned that being a good friend comes at a cost:

driving my friend to rehab meant I missed rehearsals

and lost the lead in the senior play, but it was worth it to

help a friend.



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l Keep an eye out for unnecessary words. For example, replace in the modern world of today, with today and shorten

because of the fact that to because. Edit out clichs like in the blink of an eye or in the heat of the moment.

l After your teen has revised the draft, make sure he or she proofreads it for spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors. Then

proofread the revised draft yourself by reading it aloud. Take your time some errors can be tough to spot.

l Dont expect a computers spelling and grammar check software to catch all the mistakes. It wont.

Sources: essayedge.com/college/essayadvice/course

collegeboard.com/student/apply/essay-skills

The College Application Essayby Sarah Myers McGinty

http://www.collegeboard.com/student/apply/essay-skills/http://www.essayedge.com/college/essayadvice/course/


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Why Is Writing Important in a Digital World?Some Advice for Teenagers Who Want to Achieve Dreams of College and Career

Bridgette Redman

If you think the digital age has sent good writing to the graveyard, you could be in for a surprise.

Writing skills are in greater demand than ever beforein schools, in the workplace, and even in interpersonal communication. The

highly competitive, technology-driven, global workplace needs people who can write clearly and succinctly. Writing has become a key

assignment for the majority of salaried workers.

The launch of the digital age has created a huge demand for writing skills and people who can communicate well using electronic

mediums such as email, chat rooms, HTML, hypertext, discussion groups, and social media platforms.

Plan for College by Strengthening Your Writing Skills

Strong writing ability can raise your grades in high school, help you get into college, and improve grades in both settings.

It isnt just a grade point average that gets you into college. College admission boards also look closely at college admission essays

which they consider a future predictor of your success.

In recent years, nearly half of college freshmen had to take a remedial course in collegeand forty percent of those remedial courses

are writing courses. For students struggling to pay for college, these extra courses mean having to pay more than they would if they

had developed writing skills earlier.

Many college courses require writingeither as term papers, research papers, or just essay questions on a test. Being able to writewell about any subject will make it easier for you to communicate what you know and keep your grades high.

Writing Lessons Make Top-notch Career Job Training

Being able to write well can help you get a better job and earn more while youre at it. Recent studies from such organizations as the

College Board, Communicare, and the National Commission on Writing have found:

l Two-thirds of salaried workers in large U.S. companies have jobs that require writing.

l Executives identify writing as a skill that determines whether they hire a person and whether they promote an employee.

l A poorly written cover letter or resume can immediately disqualify someone from a position.

l Professionals spend up to thirty percent of their day writing.

l More than seventy-one percent of employees have complained about lost productivity and wasted time due to poorly written

communications.

l U.S. employers say that one-third of their workers fail to meet the writing requirements of their positions.

l Poor writing causes problem in government jobs as sloppy writing confuses citizens and slows down government work. States

also spend a quarter of a billion dollars on remedial writing instruction for their employees.

l More than eighty percent of corporations with the greatest employment growth potentialreal estate, finance, and insurance

companiestest writing skills as part of the hiring process.

l Many companies will require salaried employees to take remedial writing training if they lack writing skills.

Technology has changed the way that we communicate, but it has also made writing skills more important than ever before.

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