<p>I have one of these kids! In IB he railed about having to write literary criticism and felt that the folks who BS’ed got better grades than he did, after he worked so hard to find something original to say.</p>
<p>We found:
– he needs to walk around as he talks his way through what he wants to say (my DH does the same thing)
– we used dictation in elem school (and I made him spell the hard words)
– write what he wants to say and worry about the thesis later
– write a few scattered sentences on what he wants to say and fill in from there
– when he learned to type fast enough to keep up with his mind, things improved
– don’t try to read meaning into literature that ISN’T THERE. Make a point, defend it, offer support. It doesn’t have to be a novel interpretation.</p>
<p>What most people fail to understand is that writing IS rewriting. Also, writing is a way of seeing things, not a way of saying things. This is why T.S. Eliot said, “How do I know what I think, until I see what I have to say?”</p>
<p>Okay, all that esotoric stuff aside, get him Dragon Naturally Speaking. My oldest D is a high IQ dyslexic and dysgraphic. She was able to figure out the reading thing, but never the writing thing. As for in class essays? He should do an A.B.C outline and then just stick to a five paragraph essay.</p>
<p>Tell him writing a paper is the same as a math problem, only in reverse. Find your quotes, figure out what they prove, state your proof and then back it up with the quotes you have already chosen. Good luck.</p>
<p>I do that. It’s part of an anxiety disorder for me. Basically, I have an idea in my head that this paper should be perfect, and obviously perfect in unachievable so I just avoid it and put it off when to just start writing would easily solve my problem. (Objectively, I know that I am a good writer). I think that setting small goals for deadlines can be good. I think that just starting to write is huge, but for me at least, that is easier said than done.</p>
<p>With my eldest, I would encourage him to talk. He would have a discussion with me about the ideas in his head and I would encourage him to talk more about one idea or another. I would point out possible topics for discussion in the things he said and/or suggest he think more about one idea or another. For whatever reason, the process of talking really helped him. I often knew ZIP about his topic, but could ask generalized questions. After each conversation - viola - he would disappear and emerge essay in hand.</p>
<p>Someone mentioned “BS.” A couple of my math/science oriented kids had real trouble with the lit. papers. Once they recognized the “BS factor” and started to “go with it,” almost as a parody (wine reviews, anyone?), that helped. They could pile it on and laugh about it. They had to realize that there wasn’t a “right” answer. Talking through it helped. Listing examples/supporting points helped. College writing center–use it.</p>
<p>I don’t know how to use the quote function, but if I did I would quote the same section of JHS’s post that Poetgrl quoted.</p>
<p>I teach college writing, and one of the things I tell my students is to just write for a half hour in a stream-of-consciousness way, without worrying about structure or if it’s good or bad or even completely on topic. After you are done doing this, reread what you have written and highlight any ideas that seem interesting. Start with the first idea you highlighted (perhaps it is the only one), write it on the top of a new page, and then write in a stream-of consciousness manner about that idea. By the time you are through, you may have a focus for your paper. Once you have your idea, or thesis, you can present it in a structured paper, with supporting paragraphs that support that idea.</p>
<p>sharpenedpencil - if you want to quote you can write QUOTE=whoever in square brackets , then cut and paste the part you want to quote and then put /QUOTE in another square brackets at the end of the quote. Be sure to use capital letters. This also works for **bolding<a href=“use%20B%20and%20/B”>/B</a> and *italics<a href=“use%20I%20and%20/I”>/I</a>.</p>
<p>Sharpenedpencil, your technique may work fine for left-brained sequential learners, but it doesn’t work for extreme right-brained visual-spatial learners. Right-brained learners don’t “stream” words, they build pictures, models, idea matrixes in their heads. There is no steam, there is an interconnectedness. There’s no starting point, rarely an obvious hierarchy. There’s not even sequence: such learners can and do reason “if A, then B, then naturally G must be the answer” and not have a clue how they made that intuitive jump.</p>
<p>Ironically, most of these kids end up writing very well, it just takes them forever. But they can’t do the “learning process” steps worth squat: extensive note-taking (they’re assembling details in their heads instead), detailed annotations, and paper outlining. I’m only a moderate visual-spatial learner, and I always had to finish my high school papers a month early just so I could extract an outline from my final paper in time for that earlier “intermediate” deadline. There must be 50 ways to write any 10-page collection of facts and it’s as much time and trouble to settle on a sequence as it is to just write the thing – why do double work?</p>
<p>When I was in college we used to take the most outrageous position we thought we could defend, and make that the point of the paper. The challenge of trying to pull off something we were not supposed to be doing helped motivate us to write.</p>
<p>LoremIpsum,
I think this technique works better for right-brained visual-spatial learners than it does for left-brained learners, whose more linear thinking would be better served by coming up with an outline first. The “writing to learn technique,” as it’s called, plays into the lack of hierarchy and starting point that you mention, as it recognizes that seemingly random thoughts can lead to moments of inspiration. In fact, students are told that if they have no words, they should draw, so long as the pen keeps moving.</p>
<p>My goodness, there is so much good advice here! I haven’t had time to soak it all in and comment, but I will come back to this later today and give all of these helpful suggestions and insights the attention they deserve. Thank you all so much. I’m really worried about my son and feel I have to do something to help him.</p>
<p>One of the very best university writing sites is Purdue’s site. The link below is just one page of many that talks about getting started. However, the site has so much other useful information it is worth taking a look. I was looking for a checklist that used to be on the site for writing research papers, but I couldn’t find it.</p>
<p>My son has long been unable to start papers, make steady progress on papers, or finish papers. He often spends an entire day on a paper and ends up with less than a paragraph. For years he has flirted with failure because he turns papers in incomplete or not at all.</p>
<p>Has your son tried using a “Bubble Chart” to help him “get going” and organize his thoughts? They’re much easier than outlines and (I think) better for those who can procrastinate or have ADD or whatever.</p>
<p>Students organize the evidence and arguments on their bubble charts into an outline that acts as a roadmap for their essay. This lesson teaches them to start their outlines from the middle, then shows them how to add information for the introduction and conclusion.</p>
<p>The beauty of bubble charts is that a student can start anywhere…coming up with main ideas, supporting points, conclusion, thesis statement, wherever…just plugging in as he goes along.</p>
<p>Personally, I think bubble sheets work especially well for boys (yes, I know, that sounds a bit sexist…lol)</p>
<p>I wish all teachers who think they are doing intelligent kids a favor by bending the rules could read this and see the consequences.</p>
<p>We insisted that our son be kept to deadlines and sometimes that really hurt his grade, which was very hard on all of us. But he mastered the art of writing a paper on just about anything prior to leaving for college.</p>
<p>As for the problem as hand, I’ll second the “write what you know.” My sure-fire method to break writer’s block is lists. I make lists of possible topics, lists of possible inspiration resources, lists of why I cannot possibly write this paper and then a list rebutting that list.</p>
<p>I find lists to be so helpful, especially with writers block. It doesn’t work for everyone but when writing a sentence seems daunting, it can help to reset the goal to write one word at a time in non-sentence form.</p>
<p>Sharpenedpencil, thank you for the clever insight: Drawing pictures and diagrams to help visual-spatial learners get thoughts out of the heads and onto paper could be an interesting and effective technique.</p>
<p>I do wonder, however, if most of the worst visual-spatial cases have either adapted their own coping mechanism by college, or they have chosen not to go to college at all because they determined that they were not “book smart.” Has this technique been tried in K-12?</p>
<p>Writer’s block can become a truly debilitating problem in college. Way back when, I had a friend with nine incompletes. She was paralyzed. It was going to stop her from graduating. She was a good writer, too – too good, probably. She was a real perfectionist.</p>
<p>In my opinion (as a former writing tutor, comp teacher), it’s one of two things: the aforementioned perfectionism; or the fact that the student hasn’t done enough pre-writing or organization of his research and he REALLY DOESN’T KNOW WHAT HE IS TRYING TO SAY YET. As others have pointed out, he doesn’t have to start writing with the intro, with complete sentences, etc. In fact, the intro often comes at the end when you have perceived the point of your whole paper.</p>
<p>Make sure he realizes that even a 20-page paper essentially answers a SINGLE question (albeit it can be an answer with many parts to it.) Don’t let him make his topic too big. Have him limit it and be very specific. Then have him make a very loose, informal outline – here is my possible thesis. Section 1 will be this supporting argument. Section 2 will be another one and so on. Leave big spaces around these sections and have him put in the supporting quotes from his research. When he goes to actually write, his paragraphs will naturally form around introducing and putting forth the QUOTES that make his point.</p>
<p>When he goes to the writing center, make sure he tells them he needs help in organizing and pre-writing and TALKING through his topic – NOT that he has a paper for them to edit.</p>
<p>I thought you were talking about my S! Great math/science thinker, where the answer is black & white, and just about perfect in grammar, but the actual writing? Whoo boy! There are a million ways to write an opening sentence…how to choose one? :D</p>
<p>He has saved most of his “writing intensive” humanities for senior year, and is really having to buckle down to get through the paralysis. The school has a writing lab, but I could never get him to go.</p>
<p>In HS I would try to help him brainstorm, but I eventually realized he would reject any idea I proposed, so it was counterproductive to suggest any. I was just using up all the good ideas! Now he is accepting help from his GF…bless her!</p>