233 | P a g e

STRATEGIES FOR TEACHING WRITING AT THE

TERTIARY LEVEL

Gursharan Kaur

Assistant Professor in English, Pyramid College of Business & Technology (India)

ABSTRACT

Listening, speaking, reading and writing are the skills that should be acquired by students after studying English as

a compulsory subject at school and college level. Writing is a skill that should be developed to a functional level by

the time students move to tertiary level. This paper reviews the problems that students face in writing at the tertiary

level. It identifies classroom size, language proficiency, inadequate teacher training as the primary causes for poor

levels of writing skills amongst students. The paper presents practical proposals for dealing with these issues.

Keywords: Writing Skills, Tertiary Level, Class Size, Teacher Training, Feedback

I INTRODUCTION

Writing is not a skill that students learn separate from other processes. It combines many complex activities,

including categorizing, building key terms and concepts for a subject, measuring one's reaction to a subject, making

new connections, abstracting, figuring out significance, and developing arguments—to name a few. Our highest

cognitive functions are developed and supported through active and interconnected use of language—speaking,

listening, reading, and writing. According to Harvard Graduate School of Education these strategies, typical of

"reading and writing to learn" and "reading and writing across the curriculum," are problem-solving activities

designed to help students move from simply knowing a fact to understanding a fact's significance. Helping students

make that leap — from knowing to understanding — represents the very heart of the educational enterprise.

II LITERATURE REVIEW

In India, the greatest challenge in the field of English language teaching remains the teaching of language skills. It

has been found that after studying English for 12-15 years, the students fail to correctly express themselves in

writing. A large number of studies discuss the problems of teaching writing skills in India. Ramya Devi (2016)

discusses the role of classroom size in second language teaching, problems confronted by a language teacher in

imparting writing skills and possible solutions. Afrin (2016) shows that” grammatical weakness, less practice, lack

of motivation and educational background were the main reasons behind the weakness of non-English major

234 | P a g e

students.” Khan (2016) identifies inadequate teacher training as the root cause of the problems that students have

with writing.

This paper suggests pedagogical solutions to the three problems identified as critical in teaching writing.

1. Large classes

The average number of students in Indian classrooms is any thing from between 30 to 70, or even more. This poses a

number of problems for the teacher, for example discipline, lack of individual attention, having to cater for different

abilities, students with more or less grasping power and slow or quick learners. Most importantly, the teacher is

unable to give feed back to all the students in a timely.

Possible solutions

Teachers can organize students in pairs or groups and engage them in providing feedback regarding a variety of

aspects of writing effectively presented in the form of questions.

Does the essay address the central task encapsulated in the writing prompt in a thesis statement?

Has the thesis statement been developed logically?

Are there strong transitions between paragraphs?

Are there obvious grammatical inconsistencies?

A teacher can divide students in mixed ability or same ability groups and monitor the progress. The teacher can also

appoint group leader or monitors who can help slow learners. This will also help to address the problem of discipline

in large classes.

2. Teacher training

Writing assignments commonly given at the tertiary level include paragraphs, essays or letters and applications.

Teachers are not trained or encouraged to zero in on what actually the assignments require. Further they

straightaway get down to writing without being familiar with concepts of paragraph or essay structure, thesis

statement or essay prompt resulting in poor content or no relevant content or meaningless generalizations.

Possible solutions

The solutions involve a protocol that a teacher can employ in the classroom.

The teacher can discuss and demonstrate key concepts in writing like unity and coherence.

For example in the topic sentence “People often think all planets are alike, but there are actually three types of

planets in the solar system,” students need to develop the body of the paragraph according to the focal point

presented in the topic sentence, viz. the three types of planets. Therefore, the body of the paragraph ought to list

the three types of planets, along with examples of each type.

Similarly, the concept of coherence and transition in writing can also be demonstrated with examples

highlighting the devices often used. They include pronouns, personal and demonstrative, and synonyms where

possible in order to avoid repetitions

235 | P a g e

In the context of essay writing, students need to be made aware of the 5-paragraph structure of an essay as well

as different forms of essay writing. In this context the teacher can make use of the strategy of brainstorming. The

students can be encouraged to research a topic and make notes. In the classroom, the teacher can elicit all the

details that students have found in their reading. This brainstorming session ought to lead to a thesis statement

on one aspect of the topic and the development of an outline. Students can use this model to develop their own

essays, both as take-home or in-class assignments.

3. Language proficiency

It has been observed that poor vocabulary and grammar are two of the major factors behind poor writing skills of

students. It is because students do not do and are not encouraged to do any independent reading outside their

curriculum. Besides English being taught as L2 at school level, students do not get the needed exposure and practice

that is required for language proficiency to develop. As a result they shy away from written assignments and

perform poorly in it when they are compelled to write.

Possible solutions

There are no quick remedies to improve language proficiency dramatically in the short run.

Since grammatical competence depends on linguistic inputs, students should be encouraged to maintain a

program of independent reading. They can be asked to read anything of their interest and narrate it in class on a

rotating basis.

In order to develop writing fluency, students can be encouraged to maintain a journal of their daily progress and

activities, which a teacher can read and respond to positively, without touching upon linguistic errors in them.

Students can be encouraged to do short pieces of writing, such as drafting notices, writing short pieces for

college bulletins boards, Twitter messages, and blogs. These activities can be done as a group or individual

activities.

4. Feedback

Lack of individual feedback from the teacher also results in poor writing skills as in the absence of feedback

students cannot be aware of where they are lacking. As discussed earlier this is because of large classes, poor

student-teacher ratio and lack of time on the part of the teacher.

Possible solutions

To combat this problem teacher can introduce peer checking of assignments, and rate these assignments on a

rubric that the teacher provides. The teacher acts as a facilitator and intervenes only when students do not find

solution to a problem themselves.

236 | P a g e

Apart from this, the teacher can provide detailed feedback on some but not all assignments given during a

semester, by identifying strengths and as well as errors in language by highlighting them, and requiring students

to edit the errors.

III CONCLUSION

Teachers know that they have to teach writing since it is included in the syllabus. The students understand that they

must write, as they will be examined in it. In English medium schools, English is taught from the very beginning.

Whatever the situation, students rarely develop effective writing. At the tertiary level, teachers can develop

strategies to teach writing in large classes, present models of good writing and highlight aspects of its structure and

lexis that students can emulate in their own writing, support long term program of advancing language proficiency

and give encouraging feedback.

REFERENCE

[1.] Afrin, S. 2016. Writing problems of non-English major undergraduate students in Bangladesh: An

[2.] observation. Open Journal of Social Sciences, 4, 104-115. http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/jss.2016.43016.

[3.] Khan, S. 2016. Methods to improve writing skills in English of students in Bihar. Worldereader, 1, 1: 1-5.

Online.

[4.] Brindley, Susan. Teaching English. London: Routledge in association with The Open University, 2005.

[5.] Cowley, Sue. Getting the Buggers to Write 2. London: Continuum, 2004. Print.

[6.] Edwards, Corony and Jane Willis. Teaching Exploring Tasks. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005.

Print.

[7.] Crystal, D. (2003). English as a Global Language. 2nd Edition, The Press Syndicate of the University of

Cambridge, Cambridge, 110. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511486999

[8.] Khan, H.R. and Akter, M.Z. (2011) Students’ Mistakes and Errors in English Writing: Implications for

Pedagogy. 8, 11-23.

http://www.ewubd.edu/ewu/downloadfile/crt/Research%20Report%20No.1%202011.pdf

[9.] Nunan, D. (2003) Practical English Language Teaching. International Edition, McGraw-Hill, Singapore,

88.

[10.] Baker, Joanna (2006). The English Language Teacher’s Handbook: How to Teach Large Classes with

Few Resources. London: Continuum.

[11.] Bearne, Eve (2003). Making Progress in Writing. London: Routledge Falmer.

[12.] Carbone, Elisa (1998).Teaching Large Classes: Tools and Strategies. London: Sage Publications.

[13.] Donn, Byrne(1979).Teaching Writing Skills. New York: Longman Group Ltd.

237 | P a g e

[14.] Fisher, Douglas (2007). Checking for Understanding: Formative Assessment Techniques for your

Classroom. Alexandria: ASCD

[15.] Hess, Natalie (2001). Teaching Large Multilevel Classes.

[16.] Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.