Formulaic Writing

The main problem today with teaching writing is that teachers don’t have the necessary resources they need in the classroom to effectively teach students how to do formulaic writing. The Jane Schaffer Approach to teaching writing identifies and defines key terms that teachers and students must memorize so that they share the same language when discussing writing. Schaffer provides diagrams and examples of papers to help students and teachers with the format of a paper. Also there are prewriting activities that should occur like rubrics to guide the students in the right direction when writing their paper. Another prewriting activity that is helpful is drawing diagrams to help students organize their thoughts. Schaffer’s method is appealing to teachers because it gives them all the necessary tools to teach writing such as lesson plan and worksheets that they can use right away. Teachers shouldn’t just teacher writing as a formula but as a strategy. When we teach students that it is a formula we are saying that all writing is the same and you can use the same format for any type of writing but this isn't true. There are many different types of writing and if students look at writing as a strategy they will benefit much more. When teaching writing Schaffer’s method should be one of many different strategies you use to teach writing. Finding strategies for writing will be helpful for both the teacher and the student.