In his essay “Politics and the English Language,” George Orwell provides six simple rules for all writers of English. If a writer were to follow only six guidelines in their writing, these may well be the best six. As Orwell notes in his essay, simply following these rules won’t make for good writing, but it’s a step in the right direction. Encourage students to heed his advice. Place Orwell’s rules on your classroom wall and refer to them frequently……
Abbreviations for Common Errors At the start of each school year, reproduce and distribute this handout. It lists abbreviations the teacher can place in the margin of students’ essays. After essays are graded and returned, require each class to correct errors. Assuming essays were typed, students make corrections on their work using a brightly colored pen. The teacher can then efficiently check corrected work that is returned during class or the following day. Incentive: reduce grade for uncorrected essays……
Teachers don’t like assigning essays. Students don’t like writing them. But it doesn’t have to be a no-win situation. Nothing works like repetition. Students need to write fairly lengthy essays (minimum 2 typed pages) frequently throughout high school. Although most essays are written out of class, a few should be written in class so that the teacher can regularly assess each student’s writing ability. A good procedure for essay writing is to assign the topic, discuss it with the class,…..
