“It takes too long!” “I can’t find any mistakes!” “Why do I have to write it again?” “Why do we have to do this? No one is going to read it anyway!” These were only some of the complaints I’ve heard from my students concerning writing. Looking at it from their point of view, I sympathise with them.   So, how can we motivate them to write, as well as encourage them to make their writing enjoyable? Here is a checklist for most writing activities.

• Decide the audience.
• Connect the length to the activity.
• Break down the editing process.
• Re-write.
• Students send texts to the teacher by email.
• Share the work – publish.

Decide the audience. Tell them who they are writing for.

• They can write for each other.
• They can write for other students in the school.
• They can write for parents or other adults.

Knowing who they are writing for will help them communicate more effectively. Writing just for the teacher can be demotivating. After all, the teacher has to read it. Connect the length to the activity.

• The length of the writing should match what the audience wants to read.
• A postcard is different from a letter, an article is different from a short story, an infographic is different from a poster.
• This will help students focus on the content of their work.

Break down the editing process.

1. Have each student look at their text for any obvious mistakes.

• This is best done in a different lesson from the one they wrote the text, as they will see ‘mistakes’ they didn’t notice when they wrote it the first time.

2. Have students share their text with another student.

• Sometimes a fresh pair of eyes will help. This will also help students share ideas for content they hadn’t thought about.
• As students read each other’s texts, it emphasizes the idea of an audience.

3. Collect the students’ texts and give your feedback.

• This is a good point to see how everyone is working.
• The teacher can react to each student based on their individual needs, focusing on language or content.

Re-write.

• Have students rewrite their text on Word.
• Writing on Word can be motivating as students can make corrections easily.
• It is an opportunity for students to learn about auto-correct and spell check.
• Students can easily add content or move text around.

Note: It is a good idea to inform parents of the activity if students are writing on their computers at home. Many parents will not allow their young children to use the computer on their own. Students send texts to the teacher (Email)

• With many of the obvious mistakes corrected, the teacher can now focus on improving the content of each text.

Share the work – (Publish)

• There are many ways students can share their work.
• They can read each other’s work in pairs or small groups.
• Their texts can be displayed in the classroom or in the school for others to read.
• Make a reading comprehension exercise.
• One of my favourite ways to share student texts was to have them make a comprehension exercise for their text, to be completed by the student who reads it.
• This could be a simple True/False exercise, or fill-in-the-gaps.