Writing is one of the means of communication and expression. It is a basic skill in any and every language, and academically it serves various purposes. As students, you are asked to write to: comment on a notion, describe a scene, explain an idea, evaluate a situation, persuade others to adopt your opinion and so on. Now the question  is what do teachers expect students to do to help themselves in writing, and how do students who “always complain about their low marks in writing” expect teachers to help them?

The answer is simple; if you believe that a teacher ALONE is able to make a first-rate writer of you, you are mistaken. All any teacher can do in teaching the process of writing is provide you with the multiple techniques and strategies you need to follow in constructing various essay types. But are strategies and techniques all what writing is about? Of course, not. Writing is based on composing words to form correct ideas and meaningful sentences, and the duty of the teacher  is to provide you with the frame of the picture, but it’s YOU who should work on the details of the picture inside to make its content attractive, worthy and enjoyable for the reader.

Therefore, your job is not less important; as a student who -I presume- has access to the Internet, at least at school, is supposed to do extra outside reading whenever the teacher starts teaching a new theme, knowing that at the end of every theme or unit, you will be asked to develop an essay on a provided topic which is certainly thematically-related. Outside reading about the theme in question enhances your understanding, familiarizes and equips you with some essential terminology (vocabulary terms), accurate ideas and reliable information. By doing this, you will not only be acquiring knowledge but also storing and saving data in your brain instead of having an almost blank one especially when you sit for a writing test.

As students, you need to change your thoughts about essay writing. You shouldn’t consider it as an unpleasant and unwelcome duty, instead you ought to view writing as a useful method that enriches your knowledge, develops and builds your understanding, cultivates your logic, refines your judgment, and elevates your awareness and intelligence. Once you look upon the task of writing as a means of creating a unique composition, you’ll come to appreciate and like such a task and give it all your attention and thinking to produce it in a good language and with minimum grammatical errors.

If you really intend to say “good bye” for your failing marks, you need to adopt a positive attitude about the concept of writing which will be a stimulus to improve your performance. Teaching can never be successful if it’s done single-handedly by the teacher, you need to be more cooperative and much more involved in this process. Finally, it’s up to you to choose to be either “a wise & knowledgeable student writer” or NOT, after all, for your readers “YOU Are What You Write!”

                                                                English Language Instructor,

                                                                                                                Rola Al-Kaissi