Setting the Scene – How to Energise and Excite with Writing
Reading used to be a chore. For the authors, the challenge has always been to write in a unique but exciting style to capture your readers’ attention. Your child is likely to face the same challenge, especially with the modern emphasis on creative writing and critical thinking. Writing goes beyond the actual physical pen and paper itself – there is a need for proper planning, framing and structuring of the exact story or composition that your child intends to write. With so many factors to consider, adding the final gloss to your child’s writing tends to be neglected.
To us, the final gloss or finishing touches to a piece of writing is the ability to energise and excite simply through written words alone. This goes beyond the choice of words to the structure of the paragraphs and the broad plan of the piece. Your child may need your guidance to undergo this entire process to ensure that the final writing product is powerful, creative and detailed!
To help you guide your child through this writing process, we wanted to share three simple tips on how your child can energise and excite their readers, through their writing alone!
Tip #1: Paint the Scene with Vivid and Coherent Details
Vocabulary is an indispensable tool for your child. In one of our previous articles (click to read: Wielding the Pen – Positive Habits to Boost Your Writing Skills), we discussed the importance of vocabulary-building to help your child boost their writing skills. Beyond simply memorising new words, your child should feel confident wielding them in a relevant, effective and appropriate manner! Other than building the quantity of your child’s vocabulary count, this would involve boosting the quality of your child’s vocabulary usage.
Aside from choosing vivid or flowery words, introduce your child to the concept of coherence and congruency. First, the words that your child chooses should match the intended purpose of the writing piece. Emotive words will help a story, but technical terms may be more appropriate for an instructive or informative piece. Second, the words selected should match the context of the sentence. Ensure that the use of the word is appropriate in a particular context, setting or scene. Finally, remember to keep an eye on the tone of the writing style, whether it is formal or a casual setting. A writing assignment for an e-mail draft/ a letter to a pen pal is likely to differ from a formal task/ report/ proposal.
Something evocative for narrative essays will be like…
Tip #2: Use Ruminative Language To Encourage Audience Participation
A powerful writing piece can guide the reader through an immersive and thoughtful process, especially if the assignment is to write persuasively or to craft an exposition. Focusing entirely on flowery language or literary devices may not be effective. Instead, your child can try to incorporate an interactive element into his/her writing! Even though writing is clearly different from speaking on stage before an audience, it holds the same potential to be impactful.
For example, the use of rhetorical questions at the start of a persuasive piece may help your child set an interactive tone. Instead of simply setting out a position (e.g. Singapore’s environmental conversation efforts are lacking), try a more interactive angle (e.g. What have you done to help Singapore in her environmental conservation efforts?). Think of the writing piece as the conversation starter between the writer and the reader!
Tip #3: Emphasise the Logical Link Between Your Conflict and Your Learning Point
The key part of a story curve, whether in writing or speech, is the build-up from the conflict to the story’s climax. Even in a writing piece, your child can emphasise this build-up to set his/her story up for a fascinating ending. In fact, writing as a medium is more advantageous, with your child having the freedom to explore sentence length, vocabulary and tone to create a compelling story.
One of the key aspects to focus on in writing a story is the gap between the introduction of the conflict and its resolution. There is a temptation to dedicate more writing space to the description of the conflict and sacrifice details in explaining the learning point. Instead, guide your child to expand and emphasise the learning points in his/her story. Make sure that there is a logical link between the conflict they faced and the eventual learning point. Once the logical link is clear, your reader will find it easier to appreciate the story journey!
Final Thought:
Experiment, Explore and Excite!
Writing should be a fun, exploratory process! In guiding your child, remember to give them the time and creative space to decide what is best for their writing objective. Allowing them to write sincerely from the heart, at least for a first draft, may often lead to lovely results. With the three simple tips above, we hope that your child will nurture that draft into an exciting and energising writing piece!
Public Speaking Academy strives to help students with both types of communication:
For verbal communication:
Public Speaking for Kids/ Children:
https://publicspeakingacademy.com.sg/group-classes-students-age-9-18/
Public Speaking for Adults:
https://publicspeakingacademy.com.sg/courses-and-programs/group-classes-for-adults/
For written communication:
PSLE English Tuition for Primary 5 & 6: