Teacher Takes Notes

You want to write better, of course. Who doesn’t?

School student’s writing is different. When you’re at school, your writing may be judged as fundamentally weak, marked by a lack of substance, conviction, and of purpose. This lack is not personal. It’s formative in nature – you’re still forming your ability to write. Your ability to write doesn’t only come from your vocabulary or your ability to employ grammar correctly.

Writing is built on a strong base of knowledge. As Hans P. Guth puts it very clearly in his book ‘Words and Ideas’, ‘learning to write cannot be separated from learning to observe and to think’, which pertain to criterion A [knowledge, understanding, and interpretation] and [criterion B: analysis and evaluation] of the IB framework . And thus, principles of organisation [criterion C: coherence, balance, focus, and organisation] and style [criterion D: language] cannot be taught in the abstract. They must be taught to the student as the means of giving structure and form to what they already know, think, and feel. The more knowledge they acquire about the world around them, greater its potential for fuelling or enriching their writing habit. The more they write, the better they get at retaining and synthesizing that knowledge. This then becomes a self-sustaining loop of academic clarity and success.

It is, therefore, essential to write.