Regular Practice Creates Better Writers

With winter break just around the corner, children are enjoying the cold weather, the fun activities with friends and family and some vacation time. But winter break can also be an enjoyable learning experience. The winter break provides many memorable moments, and writing about them is a good way to record those memories and practice writing skills at the same time.

Parents tend to focus on their children's reading and math skills, overlooking that writing is an education fundamental. It's fast becoming the forgotten ‘R’, This is unfortunate, as writing is an important part of every facet of education, not just in English class. Writing proficiency can have a major impact on other subject areas too.

Winter Break provides an excellent opportunity for children to explore their creative writing skills. Sylvan Learning, the leading provider of in-center and live, online tutoring at home to students of all ages and skill levels, has developed the following tips to help parents encourage their children to write over the holidays:

Pick an Engaging Topic
Persuading your child to write over the winter break may be easier if you help them identify fun and engaging topics. Suggest timely subjects.


• For example, Christmas Day or New Year's Day are good opportunities for your children to explore their own feelings about family and to reflect upon the year that was as well as to plan for the year ahead.

• Ask them if they would like to write about a New Year's Resolution for the start of 2011 and help them come up with short, measurable goals to attain this Resolution. Mom and Dad, you can be a great example by setting one for yourself!

Give Story Starters
Sometimes the most difficult part of writing can be getting started. Help your children write their essays by giving them topic ideas, such as:

• I am proud to be part of this family because….
• On Christmas (or Hannukah or Kwanzaa), my family and I usually…
• If someone asked me what the holidays mean to me, I would say…

Sylvan Tips on Writing
• Good writing takes time. Spend time organizing your ideas and thinking about what you really want to say in your essay.
• Use the Internet or library to research your topic.
• Prepare an outline before you begin to write.
• Use transition words – such as “after,” “although,” “before,” “however” and “therefore” to help your ideas flow together.
• Be willing to revise. Change your sentences and paragraphs around, add material that lends to your writing and delete material that doesn’t work.
• Avoid clichés and jargon.
• Always keep a dictionary handy to help with spelling.
• Use a thesaurus to help you think of a new way to say something.
• Ask someone else to edit your work.
• Proofread everything. Make sure grammar, spelling and punctuation are perfect before you declare anything “finished.”
• Don’t rely on a computer’s spellchecker to ensure proper spelling.

Sylvan Learning can help students improve their writing skills before the beginning of the new school year. The Sylvan Academic Writing program is designed to help students understand many writing formats and styles, including illustrative and descriptive essays, comparative passages, persuasive writing, expository writing, summaries and outlines. Students in the program also complete exercises in grammar, spelling, vocabulary, paragraph structure and essay development. In addition, Sylvan can help juniors and seniors in high school prepare for college and the workplace with its new College Prep Writing program. College Prep Writing is a 36-hour program providing a solid foundation in upper-level writing, including “how-to” help with college applications and essays, targeting efforts on SAT* and ACT® writing sections, refining research skills and understanding source documentation.

PLZ PRACTICE UR WRTIN

Millions of children and adults use language like this to make weekend plans nad chat with friends via email, Twitter, and Instant Messaging (IM). It is important that this informal writing style of shortened words, improper grammar, lack of punctuation, and use of emoticons, such as smiley faces and other keyboard-created graphics, does not follow them into the classroom.

To help children boost their effective writing skills, we offer the following tips to avoid email-style language making its way into schoolwork:

1. Talk to children about using different writing styles to communicate with different audiences. Describe the importance of personalizing messages and why it's important that students know their audience. While it's okay to close a letter with "C ya" to a friend in an IM, it is not okay to include this slang in homework assignments. Remind them that formality is required in school.

2. Have fun with writing. Provide children with enjoyable ways to practice their writing. Involve your child in writing grocery lists, thank you notes, dates on calendars, and messages. Or, play games like Blurt!, TriBond, and MadGab that help build language and vocabulary skills.

3. Review schoolwork for IM and email-style language. Encourage your children to write properly and take the time to carefully review assignments several times before submitted them to the teacher. Review your child's homework to ensure he or she is not using shortcuts or slang.

4. Talk with teens to establish ground rules for using texting, Twitter, and email. Work with your child to develop a plan for using IM and email to make sure other responsibilities, such as completing homework and chores, are met before going online to chat with friends. Discuss time limits with your children and ensure they are kept.

5. Create a writing zone. Whether writing on a computer or with a notebook and pencil, it is important that your child has a well-organized place to write. Set up an area in your home for writing - a desk to table with a flat surface and good lighting. Ensure the area is free from potential distractions and that writing tools, including a dictionary, paper and pens, are at your child's fingertips.

Sylvan offers parents a variety of tools and activities to help students practice and have fun with writing, including tips for boosting effective writing skills and free online writing journal. Parents can download the free writing journal, complete with suggested writing topics and decorative pages, from the "Family Learning Activities" section in the "Parent Resources" area of www.SylvanLearning.com.