Chapter 12 - Written Expression

Summary

Introduction

Writing is the highest and most inclusive of all literacy skills. It involves everything in this chapter along with grammatical rules, cohesive devices, and lexical and transition ties. It becomes more involved because of aspects of logical thinking and text organization. When problems exist that indicate cognitive processing deficits, the teacher must be prepared to use different techniques to modify and strengthen these deficits. Being a good reader does not necessarily result in a good writer. There is also an emotional component to writing as many students are resistant to writing or readily express that they are not good at it. They want to minimize writing with contrivances such as bullets and bare-bones outlines. The most expedient way to minimize the skill acquisitions necessary for good writing and reduce the emotional component is through Language Experience Approach (LEA). When a student begins to write at the primary level and this experience is regularly encountered throughout the grades, writing becomes easier for students.

One detriment rarely spoken of is the reluctance of teachers to teach about writing in secondary school, yet the expectation is that students should know how to write. When surveys are taken of lower school teachers, results indicate that they also carry an aversion to spending time on writing. Students may tell you only one teacher really taught them about writing in their school career. Colleges and universities have writing labs for these students.

Most mechanical errors result from specific cognitive deficits. We do not speak in sentences with punctuation but rather in run-on sentences unless we have prepared a speech ahead of time. Our knowledge of speech is not that helpful for writing. We must acquire and produce the rules applicable to the formulation of ideas within sentences. It will not be automatic and when deficits occur in this ability, it affects the assigning of appropriate punctuation.

Medical Paradigm IV

Medical Paradigm IV (defined in Chapter 8) is articulo-graphic dyslexia. This mechanism is an interference with written language, articulation, and graphomotor dyscoordination syndrome (Mattis et al. 1975). Students can read silently but not orally because of problems in enunciating and blending phonemes. They mispronounce and misspeak words because they lack smooth coordination of speech musculature, are prone to omit letters, syllables, and words, and perseverate on other letters.