1) Reading (that which is worth reading) and writing (that which is worth writing) daily, without any missed days.

2) Applying size constraints and gradually progressing from short to long writings: writing short poems (max 50 words); writing one-sentence 'essays' (max 200 characters) -- for example, summarizing an article or an entire book in one sentence; writing one-paragraph 'essays' (max 200 words), and so on. The primary focus is always on eloquence: expressing the idea concisely and using the best words/expressions.

Writing longer essays means having less time for every sentence: less time, more mistakes.

Martin Klvana Thank you very much. That`s absolutely right; continuous practice is very important. As well gradual approach, from word to sentence to para...etc, helps much.

Ask them to practice on daily basis. That's the key.

- Muthu

Muthusaravanan Sivaramakrishnan thanks a lot for the tip.

Two additional notes:

1) Writing daily will be counter-productive for beginning writers, just as running daily will be counter-productive for beginning runners. When i started writing four years ago, i was writing for about 3 hours and then recovering 3 days. Now, i can write once a day for 3-5 hours. It is important for the writer to enjoy the writer's high (which arrives after completing one writing session), and refrain from writing until next session. The recovery time should be spent with lot of reading and note-taking, but no writing per se.

2) When i write for 3-5 hours, i spend 1 hour writing a draft and 2-4 hours editing the draft.

Summing up Martin's comments, the only way one can improves one's writing skills is by "writing" daily. There is no other way around. The point where most of us stuck is to begin writing. There is no kick start method for that. And this is where most of the discouragement comes.

Podría sugerirle poner más atención en los procesos de producción y comprensión de textos, que en la corrección normativa o gramatical de un escrito. Si el interés se dirige hacia la necesidad de que los estudiantes puedan expresar claramente una idea por escrito, y a entender lo más claramente posible las ideas consignadas por un autor en un ensayo, el desarrollo de las competencias de lectura, escritura y conversación toman otro en el imaginario de los estudiantes.

I teach a course that suffices the Writing Intensive requirement at our university. If you’re very dogmatic about formatting like I am (because it’s a undergraduate research methods course), I create an example template for my students. I format a document exactly like I expect their final paper. Instead of gibberish as sample text, I’ll write things like “In this section, you should include...”. I include a lot of comments in the margins to further explicate or draw attention to things like, “Note: this is a first level heading...”. I insert random in-text citations so that they can see what that looks like in the paper and build a sample reference list in that document so that they can see how that should populate based on the references.

Additionally, I make myself very accessible for office hours and provide information for the university Writing Center (though, they do not have many experienced scientific writers). Lastly, I encourage draft submissions. I tell my students that there is never a time, as professionals, when we write manuscripts and it is expected to be perfect on the first attempt, so then why should we expect this of undergraduate who are still learning the skill? If they submit drafts beforehand, I provide thorough feedback.

I also allow them an opportunity to revise their paper (only once) that was submitted for a grade. They have one week from when I post their grade and I take the highest grade of the two attempts for the grade book. If they do not turn anything in by the original deadline (and plan to take advantage of the revision deadline as a way to get extra time), they can only earn a max of 50% on that assignment no matter how good it is in order to deter them from doing this. I hope this helps!

Hi

I think first a teacher should distinguish types of academic writing ( opinion, cause and effect, descriptive, advantages and disadvantages, compare and contrast, interactive and so on). Then, he should commence with the easiest kind of essays. After that, he models this type by providing the learners with linking words, one good example of this type of writing. After, that, the teacher should ask students to plan what they intend to write on a given topic and brainstorm ideas. He should advise, guide and monitor the process when . Then, he should motivate the product. What i mean here is writing should be perceived as a process first and then a product. (interactivity is a merit).

Not just a mere product.

Thank you Yaqoub Al Qutaiti for bringing out the types of academic writing. I have taken something with me. I also concur with the others that the best is to write frequently... if not daily otherwise a block tends to set in that is difficult to discard.

I am so grateful for your invaluable input Yaqoub Al Qutaiti Jane Achieng Esther C. Nolton Jorge Ignacio Sánchez Abu Turab Naqvi Martin Klvana .

I would like to share a few tips I got from a professional writing teacher. These are especially useful when you are writing not in your native tongue.

1. Encourage the student to listen to English music, films, television, news etc. The more you surround yourself in English the more natural it feels. You can learn a lot about how to structure sentences this way, which is especially challenging when translating.

2. Read aloud when revising, you will notice your mistakes much more clearly

3. Encourage "peer review". Before submitting, let students correct each others work. Then they will learn both to write CLEARLY and correctly.

(This can be difficult in some groups obviously, but introduce it as a positive learning experience)

And obviously, the more you write the better you get.

Good luck!

Spending some time (not as a tourist but as a resident) in a native English speaking country is a huge help (personal experience): nothing can replace that. Listening to native English speakers speaking as suggested by Amir Nakar is a great advice; but i would be very very selective whom/what i am listening to -- so in my case it wouldn't be the music, it wouldn't be the films, it wouldn't be the television, and, most definitely, it wouldn't be the news -- i would rather be bad-in-English than brainwashed (personal experience).

Amir Nakar Thank you very much for your contribution. I really liked your idea of `peer review` as students could learn a lot from each others in the process of writing.

WRITING SKILLS FROM A COGNITIVE PERSPECTIVE IN THE CLASSROOM SETTING

Epistemological framework

From a cognitive perspective, Flower and Hayes (1981); White and Ardnt (1991) point out that academic writing involves goal setting, ideas discovery, and decision making processes that play out in the mind of the writer as well as the search for language with which to express the intended meaning. Like this manner, Swales (1990) indicates writing is a socio-culturally embedded activity, a defining characteristic of which is foregrounding of institutionally generated and valued discourse norms. Hence, Flower (1994) highlights that the successful writing of academic assignments by English Foreign Learners (EFL) students entails adopting the culture-specific discourse regularities of the English discourse community. As stated, then, by this author, in English academic communities, writing is recursive, generative, and exploratory in nature. From a cognitive perspective, instead of the prescriptive and linear view of writing, emphasis has been given on writing as a cyclical ‘process’. In that respect, Flower and Hayes (1981) emphasize that writing typically consists of planning (goal setting, idea exploration, and idea organization), translating (formulating texts), and reviewing (responding to different sources of feedback). More importantly, Tribble (1996: 160) lays emphasis on the process approach by stressing the creativity of the individual writer and by paying attention to the development of good writing practices rather than on the imitation of models”. Therefore, we could infer that this approach may result in students assuming more responsibility and autonomy. In doing so, consistent with Applebee (1986: 95), a collaborative learning environment may contribute to the establishment of an interactive relationship between teachers and students whereby the teacher would play the role of a facilitator to make possible the exercise of writing skills and to draw out students’ potential. In that regard, we would like to emphasize some authors such as Bialystok and Ryan, 1985 (cit. in O’Malley and Chamot, 1990), who suggest a way of addressing this question from a psycholinguistic perspective to us. They identify two skill components, which are involved in language acquisition:

• Analysis of linguistic knowledge.
• Control of linguistic processing.

They point out that different tasks tap these skills in different ways and suggests that the proficiency of learners can be described more specifically by reference to their mastery of each of the skill components. These authors propose a framework for analyzing task demands, and demonstrate how specific tasks can be mapped onto these two dimensions. It should be possible to predict how a language learner will perform on a given task if there is an assessment of the language learner’s level of analysis and control and a task analysis of the levels required by the problem. Bialystok and Ryan’s framework, which they report has already been applied successfully to reading tasks, could provide a useful starting point for investigating the processing of different language tasks.

Practical framework

From a practical perspective, the classroom setting, as stated by McDonough and Shaw (1993), may provide us with an environment for writing at each of the three main stages of (1) gathering ideas: pre-writing and planning, (2) working on drafts, and (3) preparing the final version. To this end, we could give the following example:

(1) Pre-writing and planning. The teacher, after learners have worked individually on vocabulary according to the Universal Grammar Model by Chomsky, establishes a collaborative, interactive framework in order for learners to work together in a workshop atmosphere. Odlin (1994) emphasize that the Model of Universal Grammar by Chomsky, at the practical level, suggests that more attention must be paid by teachers to the teaching of specifically syntactic aspects of vocabulary acquisition. In this way, the universal grammar model by Chomsky is a reminder of the cognitive nature of language: language learning is the creation of language knowledge in the mind as well as the creation of the ability to interact with other people. As a result, he/she divides the classroom into small groups so that learners can all think about their task in hand at the same time to create good ideas (brainstorming), as an introduction to develop the grammar rules regarding “reported speech”, “conditionals” and “modal verbs” for a correct syntax, especially on the basis of the previously learnt vocabulary.

(2) Working on drafts. Next, each group of learners obtains a wide range of sentences, by means of which the teacher prepares the communicative interaction and engages learners in conversation through a role-play.

(3) Preparing the final version. Finally, the teacher asks students to do the final version; here, the teacher’s role of marking, commenting and giving advice acquires special relevance; for example: “This is quite a good summary, but it would have been a good idea to put your writing in a more correctly organized way. Think more carefully about clear organization and clear, appropriate layout. As for as grammar and vocabulary are concerned, your writing is well organized in terms of plot, as you have used the reported speech as a way of quoting somebody’s thoughts or words without using the exact words that were actually said. Likewise, you have used some modal verbs, some types of conditional sentence and some variations on these, and introduced a number of words and phrases used to express conditions.” In order to achieve this, students must take into account the following:

(a) Correct grammar.

(b) Appropriate vocabulary.

(c) Good spelling.

(d) Clear organization.

(e) Clear, appropriate layout.

Moreover, an important way of improving students’ writing is to have a clear idea of things that they should check before they finish their work:

First check. Check that writing makes sense.

Second check. Check that students have used the right words.

Likewise, when making up the semantic unit, which is meant to be the actual text, in a determined context (coherence), students must begin from a wide range of utterances obtained by each group of learners in a brainstorming atmosphere. Then, they should establish a continuity and connection with each other, for example, by means of the subsequent cohesion devices:

First, we adjust the text to four main paragraphs through some linkers that are used for building up an argument, such as firstly, next, then and finally; that is, these suggest that the speaker has several interesting points to make, one after the other. Second, within each paragraph we have made use of causal linkers, such as consequently used to introduce the result of previous information; furthermore, additive linker used to give extra information; however or nevertheless, adversative linkers used to introduce information which contrasts with what has been mentioned previously. And third, we put to use reported speech, conditional sentences and modal verbs in conjunction with each other.

Bibliographical references

• Applebee, A. N. (1986). The writing report card: Writing achievement in American schools. National Assessment of Educational Progress, Educational Testing Service, Rosedale Rd., Princeton, NJ 08541-0001.
• Flower, L. (1994). The construction of negotiated meaning: A social cognitive theory of writing. SIU Press.
• Flower, L., & Hayes, J. R. (1981). A cognitive process theory of writing. College composition and communication, 32(4), 365-387.
• McDonough, J. & Shaw, C. (1993). Materials and methods in English Language Teaching (a teacher’s guide), Cambridge University Press.
• O’Malley, J.M. & Chamot, A. (1990). Learning strategies in Second Language Acquisition, Cambridge University Press.
• Odlin, T. (1994). Perspectives on Pedagogical Grammar. (Cambridge Applied Linguistics).
• Swales, J. (1990). Genre analysis: English in academic and research settings. Cambridge University Press.
• Tribble, C. (1996). Writing. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• White, R., & Arndt, V. (1991). Process Writing. Harlow, UK. Longman. Widdowson, H.(2000) The theory and practice of critical discourse analysis. Applied Linguistics, 19(136), 51.

Dear Rafik Massoudi you just start writing with your creative mind not emphasising syntax . Use Google spell check for spelling mistake & try to answer

of maximum questions with your best effort !

Good Luck !

Javier Julian Enriquez Neil Bowen Jaydip Datta Thank you very much for your invaluable contributions.

As you have identified the pain areas i.e. Grammar, Spelling and Punctuation (GSP) you can ask the students to take refresher free online courses on these topics. Also, ask them to increase vocabulary by learning 5-10 new words per day. This will improve their English basics.

When they are writing, ask them to use Grammarly (Link: https://app.grammarly.com/) to evaluate and correct their writing. This will ultimately improve their confidence and will be able to write better.

Shirshendu Roy Vadim S. Gorshkov

Dear

I think we start with importance of these points (focus on this issue)

Then put a program for gradually learning them.

Try to study the sentence structure very well. If you master them, you can write very good essays.

Since your students' mistakes are mainly linked to mechanics of writing, I would recommend spending some time teaching students the mechanics of writing and providing them with relevant writing tasks. The following links could help.

https://www.myenglishpages.com/blog/how-to-teach-writing/

https://en.islcollective.com/english-esl-worksheets/search/mechanic

Cheers,