Almost Everyone CAN Write--But Not Everyone Can Write WELL

“Everyone can write; but not everyone can write well,” is something I have said to many students. Just because you can write does not mean your writing will automatically be clear or interesting or even understandable. The recipe for good writing begins with the smallest unit of writing: words.

Even as a young child, I was fascinated with words: speaking them, writing them, reading them. I even made lists of words I “liked” and “didn’t like” to pass the time (e.g. “extraordinary, good” or “mayonnaise, bad”). It is this same fascination with words that made me want to want to become a writing teacher: so that I could teach students to take words and organize them into sentences, paragraphs, essays, and even books so that they could share their thoughts and opinions with other people.

Our goal for Lingua Espresso’s Writing Course is to teach Japanese students how to take all these wonderful English words they have learned and how to use them to write in a clear, practical, understandable way. This is not a creative writing course, or a course where we write poems or short stories. Instead, this is a class where we will learn to write in a practical way for everyday use: such as communicating on the job or communicating with friends through English writing. Here are some things that I find especially important:

Organizing: Content, Format, and Grammar/Spelling

Organization and structure are very important in writing. When you write, you are creating a kind of map of information. If your map is upside down, and half of the roads are missing, how will the reader find the right hotel in the right town? So you must have clear, organized content, or subject matter. I also stress the importance of format: format includes solid paragraphs, an introduction, a conclusion, and all of the parts of writing that serve as guides to English readers. And finally, all good writing must include good grammar and correct spelling; if it doesn’t, the reader may not understand or he may make judgments about the writer/writing that could be negative. At Lingua Espresso, we will put great focus on organizing our writing and then learning to edit our writing. We will also discuss how the audience, the people reading, affects how we write.

Learning to Edit

Once you have written something, you must edit it. This means you must look for ways to make your writing more clear, to check for spelling errors you might have missed, etc. Many times, we have read our own writing so many times that we can no longer see the errors. This is why I recommend that my students write, then put the writing aside for a few hours or a whole day before reading and editing it. After a break in time, writers can more easily see how to improve their writing.

Writing English vs. Speaking English

Written English is often more formal than spoken English. How formal or informal should writing be? I always point out to my students what types of words and word use make up formal vs. informal writing (e.g. just because you say it to your sister, doesn’t mean you would write it to your boss). Thus it is also important to know who the audience is: who is reading this writing? What are their educations, backgrounds, etc.?

Note: People who read a lot are often better writers. Why? Because they are learning vocabulary, writing style, and word usage from many sources. I use writing samples in my classes so that my students can read them as models. And although the Lingua Espresso Writing Course does not require reading outside of the required textbook, I still encourage students to read outside of class and to read about whatever they enjoy (business, cooking, skiing) in order to improve their writing. I remind them that, “No one is judging your reading skills: you are reading for fun and practice!”

For more on my current English instruction at Lingua Espresso, go to www.linguaespresso.com.