Essays that are written in school with a time limit are like blitz chess. In blitz chess, players only have a few minutes to make their moves and have to make quick decisions to effectively use their time. The main goal is to avoid major mistakes, not to establish a long-term plan as is the case in classic long-term games.
The same applies to writing essays under time pressure.
For an essay, for example, that has to be written in a lesson, students often only have limited time to structure their thoughts and put their ideas on paper. The consequence is that many important writing processes such as planning, proofreading, and revising are neglected.
There are many important skills that can be trained with this form of test or essay, but in the end, they only provide limited information about how much creativity and potential a child possesses.
For a child to develop his or her personal writing style, I recommend the following activities:
Reading book series from the same author, such as "Diary of a Wimpy Kid", "The Three Investigators", etc.
Audiobooks from the same author or series also help in memorizing typical sentence structures that you can use in your essay and other texts. The recurring voices make it easier to remember certain sentences or statements.
Keeping a diary: By writing down your everyday life, you regularly practice writing and automatically engage with yourself and your everyday life.
If you want to specifically take your writing skills to the next level, I recommend our course "Writing Training and Book Club". There you will find your very personal balance between reading and writing and can optimally improve yourself using our tips and strategies.
Michele Rocco
Writing does not happen alone in ideal circumstances:)
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