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20IMPROVING STUDENTS WRITING SKILL
Zulfira Qurbonova
English teacher of school №17 Navbahor district, Navoi region
ABSTRACT
Writing is one of important skill in English subject beside the other skills. This article gives information about that writing skill is important, it does not get enough attention and proper time allocation in the teaching and learning process.
Keywords: writing, strategy, grammar structure
Teaching and learning are important for human life. All people should have an education. In this case, study English is important to all people, especially for our generation because English is an International language and it has been used spread all over the world. Most people consider to learning English as difficult, especially in writing. Writing is an interesting activity, it can give students some advantages although basically there are difficulties in writing but it is still a useful, essential, integral and enjoyable part of the foreign language lesson. Writing involves several components which have to be considered including word choice, use of appropriate grammar, syntax, mechanics, and organization of ideas into coherent and cohesive form. Because it lets students express their personalities even guided activities can include choices for the students, like the copying the story about something.
Efficient ways to improve student writing
• View the improvement of students' writing as your responsibility. Teaching writing is not only the job of the English department alone. Writing is an essential tool for learning a discipline and helping students improve their writing skills is a responsibility for all faculty.
• Let students know that you value good writing. Stress the importance of clear, thoughtful writing. Faculty who tell students that good writing will be rewarded and poor writing will be penalized receive better essays than instructors who don't make such demands. In the syllabus, on the first day, and throughout the term, remind students that they must make their best effort in expressing themselves on paper. Back up your statements with comments on early assignments that show you really mean it, and your students will respond.
• Regularly assign brief writing exercises in your classes. To vary the pace of a lecture course, ask students to write a few minutes during class. Some mixture of in-class writing, outside writing assignments, and exams with open-ended questions will give students the practice they need to improve their skills.
• Provide guidance throughout the writing process. After you have made the assignment, discuss the value of outlines and notes, explain how to select and narrow a topic, and critique the first draft, define plagiarism as well.
• Don't feel as though you have to read and grade every piece of your students' writing. Ask students to analyze each other's work during class, or ask them to critique their work in small groups. Students will learn that they are writing in order to think more clearly, not obtain a grade. Keep in mind, you can collect students' papers and skim their work.
• Find other faculty members who are trying to use writing more effectively in their courses. Pool ideas about ways in which writing can help students learn more about the subject matter. See if there is sufficient interest in your discipline to warrant drawing up guidelines. Students welcome handouts that give them specific instructions on how to write papers for a particular course or in a particular subject area.
• Remind students that writing is a process that helps us clarify ideas. Tell students that writing is a way of learning, not an end in itself. Also let them know that writing is a complicated, messy, nonlinear process filled with false starts. Help them to identify the writer's key activities:
o Developing ideas
o Finding a focus and a thesis
o Composing a draft
o Getting feedback and comments from others
o Revising the draft by expanding ideas, clarifying meaning, reorganizing
o Editing
o Presenting the finished work to readers
• Explain that writing is hard work. Share with your class your own struggles in grappling with difficult topics. If they know that writing takes effort, they won't be discouraged by their own pace or progress. One faculty member shared with students their notebook that contained the chronology of one of his published articles: first ideas, successive drafts, submitted manuscript, reviewers' suggested changes, revised version, galley proofs, and published article.
• Give students opportunities to talk about their writing. Students need to talk about papers in progress so that they can formulate their thoughts, generate ideas, and focus their topics. Take five or ten minutes of class time for students to read their writing to each other in small groups or pairs. It's important for students to hear what their peers have written.
• Encourage students to revise their work. Provide formal steps for revision by asking students to submit first drafts of papers for
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VOLUME 2 I ISSUE 4 I 2021 ISSN: 2181-1601
your review or for peer critique. You can also give your students the option of revising and rewriting one assignment during the semester for a higher grade. Faculty report that 10 to 40 percent of the students take advantage of this option.
• Explain thesis statements. A thesis statement makes an assertion about some issue. A common student problem is to write papers that present overviews of facts with no thesis statement or that have a diffuse thesis statement.
• Stress clarity and specificity. The more the abstract and difficult the topic, the more concrete the student's language should be. Inflated language and academic jargon camouflage rather than clarify their point.
• Explain the importance of grammar and sentence structure, as well as content.
Students shouldn't think that English teachers are the only judges of grammar and style. Tell your students that you will be looking at both quality of their writing and the content.
REFERENCES
1. Brown, K., Hood, S. (1989). Writing matters: Writing skills and strategies for students of English (1st ed.). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
2. Tollefson, S. K. Encouraging Student Writing. Berkeley: Office of Educational Development, University of California, 1988.
3. Walvoord, B. F. Helping Students Write Well: A Guide for Teachers in All Disciplines.(2nd ed.) New York: Modern Language Association, 1986.
