This is a short post that occurred to me while writing about… well, writing about writing.

I was looking for ways to use technology to help students improve their writing, and I realized over and over again that I was thinking about the process of writing and how crucial it is to the quality of what the writer comes out with in the end.

Great writing starts from the beginning, whether with an idea, a need, a social purpose, or a spark of inspiration. Whatever “triggers” the beginning of writing, what forms there at the beginning is like a lump of clay. Without that clay, not much could happen and the quality of that clay matters; Its texture, purity, consistency and overall composition have a lot to say about what it can produce. To a large extent, what you can create with that clay depends on the quality and quantity of that clay.

The Objective of the Writing Process

Put another way, the writing process itself is everything. It doesn't have to be used the same way every time, and that's another conversation for another day. I only mention it briefly because the worst thing you can do is read this post and then impose “writing process diligence” on aspiring writers/students who just need to believe they can write and then have the opportunity to do so in the company of a enriching environment.

All this brings me to the title. Instead of grading the end result of that process (the finished product), rate the quality of the student's use of the writing process, ideally based on their specific strengths and weaknesses, as well as the purpose and audience of the assignment. of writing itself.

Using the Writing Process

Using the writing process requires years of practice, as producing excellent writing requires constant insight and refinement. It requires the writer to understand what they are trying to say and express it in a way that has some effect on the world. Research, organization of ideas, paragraph structure, sentence construction, word choice, punctuation, breaking rules, tone, literary devices: using these ideas to communicate complex ideas is hard work.

This is why writing is less of an activity and more of a process similar to the scientific process. While we could rate professionals, it wouldn't make much sense to rate children who perform scientific experiments based on the accuracy of their data. Instead, your ability and tendency to use the scientific process to test theories and collect data would be much more important.

For hobbyists in many fields, the process is much more important than the product.

If these (or similar) goals are at least partly true, then a viable alternative to grading students' writing is to assess whether and how the student writes and uses the writing process itself in a way that makes sense to them.

And in a way that shows ownership of that writing process that will last long after they have left your classroom.