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Common Writing Challenges High-School Students Encounter and Ways to Help Them

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Writing has now become a huge part of every student's life, starting with the simplest content to the most complex writing pieces. At this point, students are asked to craft different types of essays, research papers and other kinds of creative writing tasks. The reason for this increase in variety of papers lies in the importance writing carries in students' lives during and after their education. Writing is a skill students will need for the future, which is why it is crucial to develop it to the proper level.

Unfortunately, the majority of students still fail to develop their writing skills even after finishing school. The reasons for this are numerous, including:

  • Improper development of analytical and cognitive skills

Students need to develop their cognitive and analytical skills in order to improve their writing. This includes learning to understand and think better, which is something rarely implemented in high-school education.

  • Lack of writing practice

In order to become better in writing, one has to practice it. Without sufficient practice, students can never take their writing skills to a higher level.

Even the most talented students need to learn how to understand complex sentences, differentiate between different nouns, use proper punctuation and proofread their writing for errors.

  • No feedback on their writing

Many teachers assign writing tasks to students, but fail to provide them with comprehensive feedback. Giving a student a grade for their writing is simply not enough if one wants to teach them how to write better.

James Scott, an essay expert at UK EssayOnTime says: 'Writing is not only important for a student when they want to get a good grade. After he leaves your classroom he should be ready to write his application, use writing at the job he'll acquire and craft comprehensible, correct content every day of his life'.

When high school ends, the time comes for students to write application essays, resumes and personal statements. If they do not develop sufficient writing skills, these few papers will immediately show all the weak points in their writing.

Overcoming the Challenges

High school students today face numerous challenges in terms of writing. In order to help them overcome them, parents need to join forces with the educators. But, what are the most common challenges high school students face and how can parents help?

Lack of Vocabulary

Vocabulary is not something a child can learn in a day or by reading the dictionary. If you want to help your child enrich his vocabulary, you can always try having a conversation where you insert new words and phrases, giving your child books to read or simply helping them form content by using vocabulary they learned the same day at school.

Weak Argumentation

Argumentation is highly important in writing and will be necessary if your child wants to succeed. When in high school, students must learn how to argument their thoughts and ideas in order to be able to write important pieces of content later on, such as an admission letter or even their resume.

Failing to Structure Ideas Effectively

Writing structure is something a student learns by learning writing mechanism. However, student's time at school is limited and they often fail to learn the best way to structure their ideas in content. This is why parents must work with their children at home and help them communicate better. Put their argumentation ability to test by raising an issue and see how they cope with it, direct them when necessary till they feel how to be consistent.

Poor Grammar and Syntax Skills

You can easily notice the progress your child makes in terms of grammar and syntax if you listen to them and point out to the mistakes they make. Ask your child what he learned that day and have conversations often. While speaking to your child, pay attention to the sentences they form.

Plagiarism

Plagiarism is not only frowned upon, but forbidden too. With today's technology advancing this rapidly, detecting plagiarism is now easier than ever. Teachers will surely try to explain this to your child, but you must make sure that they understand how important unique content is if they want to succeed.

Formatting and Resource Organization

In order to get success, a paper should be properly formatted. All sources used must have good organization and be cited in a way suitable for the type of paper. Make sure that your child has this clear and formats all papers in the way requested by their teachers. Simply checking their papers before the delivery date is enough to help them understand what they did wrong.

Hard/Unfamiliar Topics

The majority of students will feel lack of knowledge about a certain topic. When this happens, it is your job as a parent to help them understand the topic and teach them how to research to get the necessary information to form their opinions correctly.

High school is a key point in a student's education because of the importance it carries in terms of writing skills. It is crucial to develop these skills for the future, but students often encounter challenges in terms of writing. In order to help them, parents need to understand these challenges and learn the best way to face them in order to help their children.

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