Teaching writing to students was most enjoyable, and very challenging! It
involves taking a process that comes naturally to me, and formulating it
into words that demystify the interior under-workings of good writing.
Teaching writing requires laying a foundation of understanding. The words and
concepts are often foreign to students. Taking what for me is an almost
intuitive process, and shining a flashlight on it, and breaking it down into its
component parts in order to communicate it intelligibly to others is not easy.
Yet, the whole process can be deconstructed, and communicated. However,
something can be lost in translation...and that something is the writer.
Formulaic writing is missing the essential ingredient of the writer's unique
personality and perspective. This must shine through the words on the
page, and be communicated to the reader, otherwise, what is on the
page comes across as dull and flat.
In teaching writing, how do teachers get beyond the fundamentals, and
transfuse the capability to inject personality, passion, and a uniqueness
all their own into a students' writing? I don't have the answer to that
question, even after teaching writing to different levels of students for
several years.
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