7 Things That Reveal a Good Writing Teacher

Compiling this list was a challenge from a reader of my previous post. Let me preface this by saying that there are many different ways of being a good teacher--this is not meant to be an exhaustive list. It is also possible to be a bad teacher and still do these things. For example, no classroom behavior will be sucessful if students can tell the teacher looks down on them. Students have a sixth sense about sincerity and if the teacher doesn't care, neither will they. In the end, teachers have more control over the quality of writing their students do than they often realize. If your writing teacher does these things, there's a fairly good chance you'll have an educational experience.

7 Things That Reveal a Good Writing Teacher

1. Class time is spent talking about how to improve a piece of writing rather than finding errors. The idea that bad writing has errors and good writing doesn't is reductionist. In writing, there are seldom "right" and "wrong" choices. Rather, each choice a writer makes has an effect. The writer must develop the ability to judge the effects of different options. Group discussions of writers' options are the best way to develop such judgement.


2. Technical errors are explained to students--but only when they surface in a piece of writing. If students learned grammar, punctuation, etc. from lectures, worksheets, and red marks, everyone would show up in college making no mistakes. If these methods didn't work on you in grade school, there's little chance they will suddenly become effective in college. What every student needs to know is what mistakes s/he tends to make and how to check for those specific patterns of error.


3. Students have control over what they write about. It's impossible to do your best writing if you have no connection to what you're writing about. Sure, in the "real world," we often must write on topics because someone else demands it of us but why make the writing classroom more difficult than it already is? Good teachers prepare students for success by giving them opportunities to do their best work. It's not necessarily desirable that students be able to write about absolutely anything they choose, but they should be given choices.


4. Multiple drafts are expected. It doesn't really matter how many drafts a writer does, only that s/he works through a piece multiple times with different purposes. Again, the goal is not to simply produce a final product that is error-free and "good enough." The goal of a good writing teacher is to provide students with the experience of controlling the experience of the reader. Even drafts that have nothing "wrong" with them can be developed into richer pieces. (This is also the best way--possibly the only way--to discourage plagiarism.)


5. The teacher's feedback on a returned draft is relevant to the next draft/revision. A good teacher's comments are primarily about the writer's ideas, motives, and choices for revision. Students want to know what did and didn't work in the draft so they can make better decisions in the future. That's all teacher comments need to address.


6. Students are always directed to imagine the response of the reader. The reason for writing is reading. The writer who forgets this is doomed. A good teacher will insist that students practice putting themselves in the place of the reader. This is all that is needed to deal with students' problematic content and tone.


7. Whatever grading method is used, it does not penalize risk-taking. If students believe delivering an error-free and properly formatted product is what insures an A, they will never do their best work. The grading system should consider each student's decision-making within the context of their progression of drafts.