How Your Encouragement Helps Your Students Foster Their Writing Voice

Ralph Waldo Emerson. Virginia Woolf. Maya Angelou. When you see these names, you likely think of how these famous writers shaped our writing landscape. Yet, there’s even more to the story.

When we think of writers, we also tend to think about their voices. In fact, as you grade your students’ essay writing, you’ve probably become accustom to their voices. In many cases, those voices are still developing and growing, but you can see the hint of their direction already. If you’re like us at Writing with Design, you want to do everything you can to nourish these voices, even give them a bullhorn! And here’s how you can do it…

Encourage Them to Take Notice

A huge part to teaching young writers is to help them become conscious of their voice. It also helps to point out the direction they’ve chosen for that voice, as well as other options. Words like “challenging,” “flowing,” “straightforward,” and many more can give them the chance to take note in their own essay writing.

Encourage them to Write More Than Essays

Another way you can foster those unique writing voices is to encourage all types of writing. While essay writing is crucial to their academic success, their voice in stories and poems doesn’t just spill over into their essays. Even writing dialogue for their own comics is a wonderful tool to aiding their understanding of voice. This in turn gives them more perspective during essay time and more interest in the writing process.

“When you see these names, you likely think of how these famous writers shaped our writing landscape. Yet, there’s even more to the story.”

Ready to encourage them even more? Try Writing with Design in your class by giving us a shout!