When I think about the development of my writing skills three personal experiences come to mind immediately:

Whilst I was at school a rather grand looking stand – in teacher pronounced to the class that she was not going to tell us about the use of the semi – colons because there was no way in which any of us would understand what she was saying.

During my first years of working for the Civil Service I was called into my boss’s office. I had the Merchant Shipping Act thrown in my direction and I was told to rewrite a paper I had written using it as my reference.

Much later on in my career, whilst working for another Civil Service Department, I was again called into my boss’s office. This time I was told that the structure of my paper was not clear enough and that I was to make sure I adopted the correct Departmental style and structure.

These three examples show how confidence in these crucial areas can be so easily undermined. Being told by an authority figure that we are effectively lacking the intelligence to understand an element of punctuation is clearly not helpful. Having a massive legal text thrown in our direction may make the point about researching, but it is unlikely to help us approach things better next time.

The point about structure is fair enough, but if the rationale for using a particular structure or style is not explained and if its use is not put into a context, confusion and a lack of confidence are the most likely outcomes.

This article will explain why personal confidence is crucial to the development of writing skills. It will show how this confidence can be easily undermined, and then outline how it can be protected, maintained and enhanced.

The semi –colon example given above happened during my last couple of years at secondary school. For a long time afterwards, and still sometimes today, I still worry about my use of semi – colons. Do I really understand their use or not? Suffice to say, that careless, unprofessional remark from the teacher did not do much good for my confidence in my writing skills.

Thankfully, at about the same time another teacher, a specialist English teacher, joined the school. His approach was different. He showed a genuine interest in all of us and made a point of getting to know each of us individually.

More than this he never once betrayed any negative perceptions of our ability. He always made the assumption that we could all learn, understand and improve. He explained points of grammar and punctuation carefully and on a one to one basis where needed.

During my year or two learning from this excellent and all too rare teacher, I started to gain confidence in my ability to express myself through words. By the time I was about to leave school I was even writing passable poetry and getting it published in the school magazine (a publication I believe this teacher began).

My point here is that my writing improved not because I miraculously gained additional intelligence, but because the positive attention and recognition given by the teacher boosted my confidence and helped me to feel that I could learn and apply the conventions of good writing. From this solid foundation I went on to achieve an A level in English.

What this teacher did was set up a virtuous or positive belief cycle. He recognised that he was in a strong position to positively influence his pupils. He chose to believe in the ability of the people he was teaching. This was reflected in the way he behaved: giving helpful, constructive and positive feedback; showing an interest in people’s thoughts and ideas; setting up opportunities to practise, succeed and gain acknowledgement.

The teacher’s behaviour positively affected the beliefs of those he taught. We began to believe that we could learn how to write. This was reflected in our behaviour and our increased interest in and improving standard of writing. Seeing our improvement the teacher’s belief in our abilities was strengthened. This in turn encouraged him to demonstrate further helpful and encouraging behaviour, which further boosted our confidence and belief in our writing skills.

Through his behaviour and example this teacher created a virtuous feedback cycle that encouraged growing confidence and believe, and improved the motivation and ability of everyone involved, pupils and teacher alike.

In short, the encouragement of confidence led to the demonstration of enhanced writing skills.

Now, unfortunately I could give many examples of how confidence and belief in writing skills has been unthinkingly crushed, almost to destruction. Here is one of the most powerful ones I can remember:

Whilst at infants’ school I remember our teacher announcing to us all that none of us could spell our names properly, and that this was, quite frankly, indicative of our poor ability and backwardness.

We would all have been about 5 years old at the time.

She then proceeded to give us all neatly printed out cards with our names on. All in capitals as I remember, probably because being backward we would not understand the concept of higher case and lower case lettering.

Until this point I did not realise I personally had a problem with writing my name. The teacher had not pointed it out to me or helped me learn how to do it. I quite logically concluded that because the teacher had announced this failing to the whole class that we all, me included, had this inability and that we were all, by definition, backward.

Here the teacher, through lack of care and attention, set up a destructive or negative belief cycle. Her starting belief was that we were not intelligent enough to write our names. This was shown in her behaviour by her announcement to the class that we were all backward and the giving out of what she charmingly called ‘idiot cards’ for those that could not spell their names.

Our belief was obviously affected by the teacher’s behaviour. We began to see ourselves as backward and unintelligent. This was reflected in our behaviour – when having to write our names we copied them from the ‘idiot cards’. The teacher, seeing this behaviour, had her initial belief in our lack of ability reinforced (especially as everybody copied the cards exactly – all in capitals). This encouraged more unhelpful and negative behaviour from her, and so on.

Here, through negligence the teacher created a destructive feedback cycle that diminished confidence and personal belief and worsened the motivation and apparent abilities of all concerned, pupils and teacher alike.

In short, diminished confidence led to the demonstration of weakened writing skills. (I still to this day have the habit of checking the spelling of my name.)

The above examples make it very clear that careful management of the feedback process is very important for the maintenance and enhancement of writing confidence and skills. Also important is building a helpful, realistic and positive attitude towards the task of writing itself. Lastly, we need to know and use tried and tested techniques that will help us make the most of our writing skills. The remainder of this article deals with these areas.

To make the feedback we receive work for us and ensure that it enhances our writing confidence and skills, we need to respond to it in a proactive, assertive and constructive way. We need, as receivers of feedback, to be actively and helpfully involved in our bit of the feedback cycle.

If we are not actively involved and just receive and respond to comments in a passive, seemingly accepting way, there is a danger that we might start to contribute to a destructive feedback cycle. (The giver sees our passivity and interprets this as evidence of our total acceptance of their feedback. Consequently, they are encouraged to do more of the same, whether it is helpful or not.)

To encourage helpful feedback and the creation of a virtuous feedback cycle, use this checklist for receiving feedback proactively, assertively and constructively:

Do you:

Demonstrate interest in the feedback by asking for specific examples and illustrations (especially if they are not forthcoming)?

Ask for clarification where you are unsure of any points?

Constructively challenge points that do not seem to be supported by specific examples? (Do you do this by providing specific examples of your own that support your view?)

State when and where you are going to incorporate helpful feedback into your future written work?

Make a point of following up on the above statement as soon as possible?

Tell the giver of the feedback when and why their feedback was helpful?

Actively follow up on any actions agreed or promises made by the giver of the feedback?

Ask for specific feedback on your written work if you have not received any?

Thank the giver for their feedback?

As can be seen from the previous paragraphs, feedback is a very powerful tool that can either help us improve our writing or, if handled badly, lead to diminished confidence and the worsening of our skills. This is particularly so because feedback about our writing skills feels very personal. We all write in our own unique way – a way that we have developed over the course of our lives. Our written style, therefore, feels almost part of us and any criticism of it can feel like a criticism of ourselves.

Also, because writing feels so intimate a part of us, it can very easily reflect the fluctuating confidence levels and anxieties we feel from time to time. When we feel the need to hurry, to get things done quickly, our writing can start to reflect this and if we are not careful our clarity and conciseness can suffer. If we feel insecure about a point we are making or the style we are using this may show itself in our writing. We may become over fussy and our use of punctuation over complex and confusing. We may put too many supporting statements in, again causing confusion.

To help us manage our insecurities and anxieties and stop them from adversely affecting our writing, keep the following in mind:

Avoid completion anxiety. Sometimes when we are working on a piece of writing we can feel the need to finish it as quickly as we can, as if by doing so we are proving our skill and fluency with the written word. This can cause us to rush our research, planning and even the drafting. Slow down and remember that to complete an effective piece of writing means taking your time and being careful about each stage. Good research and planning shows through clearly in a well – written piece of work.

Remember there is no such thing as right first time. We can feel that writing that perfect turn of phrase or illuminating point with ease, straight away is another sign of our expertise with the written word. It is not. Most writers need to draft and redraft until they get it the way they want it. Remember that for most people, whatever they might have us believe, the process of writing is 90% perspiration and 10% inspiration.

Review writing in a continuous and objective way. Whatever others say about our writing, good or bad, we must always review our work and give ourselves feedback. This can put others’ comments into a context and help us gain a balanced perspective on our writing. When reviewing a piece of writing always ask what can be improved next time. For a list of helpful review questions click on the following link:

Beware of pride. One of the most common mistakes people make is to think that referring to a dictionary and routinely using the spell and grammar checkers are somehow signs of a lack of writing ability. Again this is not the case. Everybody needs to check spelling and grammar from time to time.

Also, it is good practice to obtain and refer to a book outlining some of the most common grammar and punctuation errors and how to avoid them. A good booklet is: " Common Errors in English and How to Avoid Them" (Published by Chambers ISBN 0 – 550 –18080 – X).

Remember to differentiate between feedback about writing style and feedback about level of writing ability. A lot of feedback we receive about our writing deals with the appropriateness of the style we use and whether or not it meets the expectations and preferences of our readers (chief among them being our bosses and managers). When receiving feedback identify the preoccupations of the giver. Are they giving us feedback about the standard of our writing skills? Or are they asking us to adopt a different style that they consider more suitable to them and the purpose of the writing?

This distinction is important. If the feedback is about the standard of our writing skills then we need to ensure we receive additional feedback that will help us improve it. If, however, the feedback is about style rather than standard, we will know that any changes required to our writing are a matter of personal or organisational preference. We can rest assured that it is not our innate writing ability that is being questioned and take confident steps to adopt the required style.

 

Two of the major obstacles to writing well are:

Not knowing where to start.

Not knowing how to order our thoughts.

Here are some simple approaches that have helped people overcome these problems:

Before doing anything else write the purpose of your piece of writing in one sentence on a separate piece of paper.

Have a separate planning sheet for each section of your document.

When planning your written work ask yourself: What do I need to achieve? Why am I writing the document? How do I need to write it (style, Language, Structure etc)? Who needs to see it and who is it for? When is it needed by and when do I need to receive any responses? Where can I obtain the information I need to complete the document?

When struggling for an overall structure remember MADE: start off with the message you want to give; then state clearly what action is required; next go into the detail of the document (arguments, main points etc.); then finish by providing supporting evidence for your main points (usually in the form of appendices).

Use topic sentences to make the main point of each paragraph clear. A topic sentence starts off a paragraph and summarises its main point.

Use topic paragraphs at the beginning of each section. A topic paragraph summarise the main points of the section.

Write clear explanatory titles and section headings. Make sure that the first paragraph of each section deals immediately with the points outlined by the heading.