The joy of writing – teach, practice, inspire!

Abstract

Writing is one of the most effective forms of recording thoughts and communicating across time and space. It is also the major focus of early years education when children strive to make the connection between sounds and their graphic representations. Yet, writing is not merely translating utterances into texts but an art of putting one’s thoughts and feeling on paper is such a way that they will be understood and experienced by the reader. This is obviously difficult, the more so if it is done in another language. Teaching writing requires many skills, most of which have little to do with the actual process itself. As teachers, we need to guide students through the intricacies of logical argumentation, text structure and formal aspects or writing inspiring them to come up with fresh ideas along the way. This text is a summary of a workshop on teaching writing to secondary school students which was aimed at providing new ideas on how to encourage students to write and, more importantly, how not to discourage them from the process. We strongly believe that writing is a creative process of self expression and is, as such, an immensely fulfilling activity. The only thing teachers have to do is help their students experience the joy of writing.