Improving Student Writing Skills - cse crafts

The Writing Process
Drafting
Each use of the writing process is likely to take most
students a similar amount of time, although the steps on
which they spend their time may vary. For example, if
students spend time on their prewriting, they will gain
it back while drafting; if they rush through the prewrite,
they may take longer to draft. This is to be expected.
Some students will fly through the planning stage of
their writing, giving it the minimum required effort and
nimbly inserting ideas on the fly as they draft. Others
will agonize over their prewrite and view the draft as
“filling in the blanks” of an organized outline. Both
approaches have their advantages and disadvantages.
Regardless of the prewriting approach that leads into
drafting, you will want students to keep the following
in mind:
• Drafting Need Not Be Perfect Writing
Many students will focus on the fact that their draft
doesn’t sound published as it flows off their pen. They
know that words are misspelled, certain things could
have been better said, and maybe the punctuation is
sketchy at best, and they won’t be able to continue until
they “fix” the problem. While some drafters may simply
be perfectionists, the majority of writers fear exposing
a perceived lack of writing ability. The most powerful
thing you can do to hearten timid drafters is to share
your own drafts and model the revision necessary to
turn drafts into publishable work. This is also important
in showing that revision is necessary—an important
point for students who feel that their first draft must
be a finished product. When doing this, make sure your
draft sounds choppy—you also need to be comfortable
sharing in-process work in front of the class. By sharing
a rough draft with students, you will show them it’s all
right to struggle in their first attempts. By demonstrating
that strong language can be culled from a choppy draft,
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