Feed on
Posts
Comments
«
»

How to Write Well – Susan Bradrick

May 26th, 2008 by

(Speaker at the Homeschool Conference)

Writing is not like other academic subjects

  • There are no right or wrong answers
  • It is not based on the memorization of facts
  • It is a creative art

God’s creativity is different from ours.  We need necessary ingredients:

example: Baking a cake

  • Purpose and recipe
  • form, design and style
  • flavor, liquid, leavener, sweetener
  1. Content-Signifigant topic and purpose for writing.
    1. Determine your audience
      1. Have a real audience to whom you are writing
      2. Writing for the sake of writing and not for communicating is fruitless
      3. Why would you write something if no one is going to read it!
    2. State your purpose in one concise sentence  (inform, cheer, persuade, instruct, appeal, prepare)
    3. Choose a general topic
      1. choose a broad subject area, then limit in that area
      2. Conform to God’s righteouse standards
      3. part of your own experience or eprsonal story
      4. intended audience of interest
      5. God honoring; real ideas to real people
      6. Have kids write letters to relatives.  Reports and research can come later.

Ephesians 4:29 Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.

Ephesians 5:4 Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving.

Philippians 4:8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

  1. Limit your general topic
    1. to fit purpose and desired elngth
    2. can be analyzed closely and carefully
    3. look through the eye of an artist to see what others do not see
    4. Narrow the topic to where you can describe it in depth
  2. Check attitudes about writing
    1. Please the Lord
    2. Examine attitudes and motives for writing and make sure they are conformed to God’s Word.
    3. Simple letters are a great start for younger kids

Psalm 121:3  He will not let your foot slip— he who watches over you will not slumber;

2. Style-choosing words and assembling

Writing needs to be coached up to high school.

1.  Before writing: choose type that suits content (learn/teach these in order)

  1. Descriptive
  2. Narrative
  3. Informative
  4. Persuasive/Argumentative (high school)
  5. Combination of these

Writing fiction is not great for kids.  let them write about real things that od puts in your life.

In Middle and High School, have kids write Letters to the Editor.

Reference: Author John Piper, "A Godward Life"

2.  Before writing: Choose the form

  1. Letters, social notes, business letters
  2. book reports, research reports

3.  During writing: Skillful and appropriate word choice

  1. Concrete- choose words that are vivid and specific

ex. ‘The animal went away’  vs. ‘The raging, snorting Brahma bull charged down the narrow cobblestone street.’

2.  Concise- saying as much as possible in the least amount possible

ex: ‘the man in the western shirt, levis, chaps, and large-brimmed hat skilfully threw the long rope with a loop in the end of it over the head of the brown and white shaggy-headed steer’.  vs. ‘The cowboy skilfully lassoed the Heifer steer.’

3. Graciousness-only say what’s necessary: be gracious indescription.  Non offensive.

  1. Ask: Will my writing bring glory to Christ?

4. Mechanics

  1. penmanship
  2. spelling
  3. punctuation
  4. grammar

Your writing:

  1. will effectively accomplish a purpose
  2. will bless others
  3. will glorify God

Get started: Dictate with early writers and write for them

 

Posted in HOMESCHOOL

Comments are closed.