Homeschool For Expository Writing Skill in High School

Homeschool For Expository Writing Skill in High School

Writing is a complex skill made up of a series of simpler skills performed performed in rapid succession or simultaneously. Skills apply knowledge in a hands-on, demonstrable way. An example of a how someone learns a familiar complex skill will help you understand the best way of learning writing skill.

Trevor wanted to drive a car. Before he could take driving lessons, he had to learn a few rules of the road, pass a written test, and get his learner's permit. Trevor took drivers' ed in school, but he didn't just practice in class. He drove any time he could get his parents or older brother to let him drive their cars.

Trevor passed his road test easily. Now he can drive himself where he wants to go and do errands for his mom. Trevor still needs more experience in different road conditions, but he can learn the rest of what he needs to know about driving from his everyday experiences.

To learn the complex skill we call writing, the learner needs just enough head knowledge to understand the instructions before starting practice. Just as Trevor learned to drive by actually driving, writers learn to write by going through the entire process of writing repeatedly. Writers also learn the vocabulary of writing readily when they are physically engaged in writing.

Writers prove their skill by performing on demand to a specified standard, just as Trevor proved he had driving skill by driving his family's SUV at a time and place the motor vehicles department specified.

Instead of producing an objective goal, like Trevor's driver's license, writing skill produces physical documents consisting of expository prose. Expository prose explains ideas that are part of ordinary experience, not things that are invented or imagined, and it exposes the logical relationships between those ideas from everyday life.

All expository writing sets out to make a point, even if the exposition takes the form of an entertaining story. The overall goal of expository writing is usually to inform or persuade readers. The point that the writing seeks to convey can be boiled down to a single sentence, called its thesis statement.

With just these few concepts to guide you, you can guide your children toward essential, everyday writing competence.

Linda Aragoni has packed over 30 years' experience as a nonfiction writer-editor and teacher of expository writing into her website, You-Can-Teach-Writing.com, where you can learn more about the complex skill called expository writing. Copyright 2010, Linda Gorton Aragoni. You may reprint this article provided the whole text, the author's name, the links, and this copyright notice remain intact.

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