Struggling Writers

 As we get closer to our final curtain at DTE I find that I am a little sad as I will definitely be missing my lecturers and fellow classmates. This has indeed been one heck of a ride and the rumors about teacher training are unjust. Being in the same space with like-minded individuals who are all working towards a goal for their own different reasons is definitely motivating. I can’t count the numerous skills I learned from classmates and of course my lecturers. The only regret that I have from this course is that I didn’t learn all these different strategies sooner.

Let's jump into it!  Struggling Writers goes beyond students because even as adults we struggle with our own writing. Let's first identify some simple ways we can get better at writing.

Writing needs to be done more often.

Writing is a skill that has to be developed over time. To get better at writing we should practice writing. From my own experience when I started teacher training I was not writing that often but once I got hit with all those wonderful writing assignments I got more comfortable producing the word count. I'm still not a fan of academic writing, I enjoy writing stories as well as telling them.

How often do you write?

Planning is Key

Throughout life, you will find that planning is essential to stay on task and definitely makes whatever it is your doing a lot easier especially writing. While you do have moments where you are inspired to write, there should still be a plan that you are following. I learned a lot of strategies when it comes to planning your writing from Ms. Quinn like brainstorming and using a concept map to organize your ideas. She is definitely my superhero when it comes to writing. What do you guys think about the different planning steps for writing? Did it help with your own writing?

Share your work with others

This tip really hits home for me. When you share and talk about your writing it really puts things into perspective. You are able to identify what you need to do and your thoughts about what you have already written. Mumbling to yourself at a desk is very different from trying to sell what you're writing to someone. Writing is definitely meant to be shared and speaking about it gives it life. I have a little side story that I'm working on and trust me I wasn't really motivated to start writing until I spoke to one of my classmates about it and she encouraged me to write it because she wanted to read the story. It really motivated me to write.

Outside of assignments are you guys working on a writing piece or planning to?

Here are some strategies that I found that might help with struggling writers in your own class.