BrigitteSmith.com

Education and learning skills are of great concern for parents with small children: will they speak and write correctly? Will they make it to college? In school students are supposed to learn and acquire the writing skill, for instance, based on the activities held in class and at home during homework and assignments given by teachers or instructors. But unfortunately, the writing goals that need to be achieved in order for them to be fully functional in this society are not exactly met as they should be.

One reason for this is that writing goals may not be very well defined at the national educational level. There should be made a clear cut distinction between practical writing that we may come across on a daily basis and creative writing that some teachers seem to focus on in some schools. It is indeed very interesting to challenge your students and pupils to try something new and set the imagination free, but let us not forget that writing was initially invented to serve very pragmatic purposes ? communication of ideas and information.

Writing a CV or a cover letter are two examples of practical forms of writing that many members of our society seem to have difficulty in, and I wonder why… So then, why should you expect that person to be able to come up with an innovating descriptive paragraph when the most basic things about him or her cannot be put on a piece of paper in a coherent, reader-friendly manner?

Another reason why writing goals are not met is that there is not enough practice with writing at the level and in the manner that is required by our society. Home assignments are designed and given so that they are not very difficult or challenging for the child. Instead children that arrive home, log on chat programs where they use coded language or shortened way of typing words and expressing themselves. With less and less focus on writing compositions in class and at home and more and more informal, out-of-the-institution emphasis on brevity, simplicity and fun in writing, our kids are losing even those skills they may have rather passively acquired in class and at home.

Moreover, essays and compositions seems to rely on information that is copy-pasted from another source than their own creation and readily available on the Internet. As a result, teachers and instructors should be more concerned with writing goals and meeting them, making sure that the rules applied to writing throughout life for social and practical purposes are also applied and required at the schooling level.

All in all, we should become aware that a correct guiding of an individual?s first steps in his/her writing experience, a motivating description and explanation of the necessity of this skill throughout their life may make students more oriented towards achieving practical writing goals. In addition, it may result in a lack of disappointment and feeling of helplessness along a later in-development career path.