Journaling Benefits

posted by WyzAnt tutor: Sue K.

It’s already August! Do you know where your journal is? I’m not kidding. Journaling is one of the best ways for you to learn a new language, such as English. It’s always one of the ways to let your writing muse know that you are serious about being a writer. So, whether you’re new to the American English language or you want to write, get journaling!

Summer is nearly over, so there’s no time like TODAY to grab a new book (preferably lined) or start a new file on your computer titled: JOURNAL for SUMMER 2012. Scientific studies have shown some advantage to handwriting over typing on a computer keyboard--something about the physical motion of the hand on the paper connecting more directly to the language center in the brain. As a teacher of writing and English as a Second Language, I used to be pretty firm about my students handwriting in their journals. But, then I stopped journaling for a period of time. After about a year, I asked myself why I had stopped. It was then that I realized I had become so accustomed to typing so fast (about 110 words a minute) on a laptop keyboard, that handwriting was just too slow for the flow of my thoughts that came tumbling out every time I picked up my paper journal to write.

Now I tell my students to use whatever technique feels right for them and supports their inner writing muses in their journaling.

The key is to start. Just do it! Start with five minutes a day, every day. After a few days of this practice, you'll feel so great about your new language skills and/or the amount of original writing you're creating, that you will most likely increase your journaling time.

What are you waiting for? Go start that journal!

Happy Journaling!

Sue

Tips to Keep You Writing

posted by WyzAnt tutor: Sue K.

I’m teaching an ESL writing class this semester at the local community college. ESL stands for English as a Second Language. The students in my writing class are advanced speakers of English as another language besides their native language. They are from South Korea, Egypt, Brazil, Caracas and Romania.

Although they are mostly fluent in speaking English, they need to improve their English writing skills. That’s why they were placed in my class. They have been writing paragraphs all semester, polishing their skills so that they write at least three passing paragraphs. They’ve nearly achieved this goal as a class. At the end of the semester, we are going to enjoy food from everyone’s native culture and discuss tips and tools to help them continue to improve their writing.

That’s the thing about writing — whether in your native language or another language. You must keep writing every day. If you don’t use it, you will definitely lose it.

So how can you incorporate writing in your very busy daily life? Here are some ways I listed to discuss with my students:

Buy a daily writer’s book, such as The Writer’s Book of Days. These books are great because they give you a writing prompt for every day of the year. Some of the prompts are sentences you are supposed to finish, topics, or questions to answer. You are supposed to write for 15 minutes nonstop. I used to do this daily writing practice every day. I haven’t done so in a while and I can tell in my writing! When I was writing from my book of days every day, my writing on my day job and in my freelance work improved and I sold more pieces! The lesson here is to write every day and these books are great tools to help you do just that.

Write morning pages before you get out of bed. Julia Cameron talks about these in her bestseller, The Artist’s Way, another excellent book for all writers to read by the way.

Read one book about writing at least every month (I think it’s best to read two writing books a month, but let’s start with just one). Right now, I’m reading Sol Stein’s How to Grow a Novel.

Read at least one novel a month for pleasure. And, while you’re enjoying the story, pay attention to how the author writes it. In fact, you could read the novel the first time for pleasure and then go back and re-read the novel to study the author’s technique and the general techniques for fiction writing. I know of one now-famous author who started writing fiction by doing this practice. It helped her see the geneeral format for the genre she was interested in writing. She then went on to write and publish many bestsellers.

Of course, we cannot forget about writing in our journal every day. Journal entries are different than morning pages and the book of days writing practice. Journaling is for our eyes only; it is more personal. When we journal, we don’t worry about grammar or style; we just write and write and write. It’s the time we gift our creative muse to just “let it all hang out.” Journaling is very important to honing our writing skills and assuring our creative muse that we will pay attention to her and we are serious about being writers.

That’s all for now. I’ll add more after my students and I have our discussion in a few weeks.

Happy Writing!

Sue

Sue K.'s Blog at WyzAnt.com

Journaling Benefits

Tips to Keep You Writing