Educationally Speaking:National Day on Writing
Today is the first ever National Day on Writing. Earlier this month the U.S. Senate declared that this day would be a nationwide day for celebrating writing of all kinds.
The National Council of Teachers of English lobbied to establish this day to highlight the remarkable variety of writing we engage in from lengthy novels to court briefs and twitter updates. The English teachers I know are always willing to help others write better and the national organization has made it their mission as well.
If you’d like to participate you can log on at www.galleryofwriting.org. At the “National Gallery of Writing” you can post a sample of your writing for the public to view. You can also read the words of others, get tips on how to improve your writing and listen to audio clips of some famous authors.
If you’ve always wanted to be published and have others read your work, here’s your chance to do that online. You can even start a local gallery and invite your friends or colleagues to post their writing as well.
One of the helpful components of the Website is a section on “tips for writers” including how to pick a topic to write about. You might consider weaving what you know best with a problem that intrigues you and adding some memorable moments from your life. Together this could be the start of your first great piece of writing.
Writing is often described as a linear process though many writers jump back and forth between the stages of prewriting, drafting, revising, and proofreading until a final product is created.
Getting started involves identifying who’ll be reading your writing. Just as advertisers “target” specific audiences with their commercials, writers need to do the same in order to be effective. When writing an essay you begin with a topic sentence, but fiction writers need to hook their readers with a lead in sentence.
Most writers draft their first sloppy copy with a “guess and go” approach to spelling and then use spell check when they’re done. If the big blank white page is intimidating, overcome your writer’s block by filling a smaller index card.
If you’re kind of wordy and verbose, you’ll need to make changes to the rough draft by cutting. Others write in such a concise fashion that revision to add greater detail and elaborate will be needed.
To polish your work many writers read it out loud. Other times it’s beneficial to get feedback from someone else like e-mailing it to a small test audience. Ask them to read for any trouble spots that don’t make sense. Revision is intended to make the meaning of your words clearer for the reader.
Gary Paulsen said that writers should, “Read like a wolf eats.” This suggests that being good at writing not only requires writing regularly, but also reading voraciously.
Short audio clips of authors’ comments about writing are available on the website. Sarah McCoy’s sound bite tells us that for her, “a day without writing is like a day without food.” She admits that some days she only has time for “a snack of a hearty sentence or two, but other days she has a feast of words.” She even writes on the weekend and loves it.
National Day of Writing is being celebrated in many ways across the nation, but you too can participate by simply logging online to have a look at all types of writing from all walks of life. You can also see what other people and universities are doing to celebrate the day. I know my students are getting a special chance to write on a topic of their choosing today.
Writing is a daily practice for millions of Americans, whether students or employees. Few people notice how integral writing has become to our daily life, so to draw attention to the wide variety of writing we engage in, NTCE has established the National Day of Writing.
Whether we love writing or only tolerate it, each of us is a writer. I hope you take a moment today to pay attention to how often you write. Commit now to improve your craft even if it’s to press spell check before sending your next e-mail. You’ll make some English teacher somewhere smile and even more importantly, you’ll communicate your written message more effectively.
