Although the content of writing curriculums varies drastically between classrooms, the writing process itself proves to be a struggle for the large majority of students— staying within the word count, remembering grammar rules, and deciphering a teacher’s preferred style of writing only add to the amount of obstacles. Because teachers often “[emphasize] the final product of writing, not the process it [produces],” students can easily consider a writing assignment as something that simply results in a grade (Jasmine and Weiner 132). With this mentality, the students will certainly internalize the grade and potentially read any teacher comments, however they are not truly involved in the process of writing or with revising their own work. In order …show more content…
Although many factors are important to include in this writing curriculum, an emphasis on collaboration between students as well as exposing students to works by professional authors are the factors most pertinent to a student’s improvement. By making collaboration and literature based writing the primary components of a curriculum, students learn how to engage in the writing process and become more confident writers both mechanically and intellectually.
Often one of the most improperly implemented factors within a classroom is peer editing. While collaborative reviewing is something that does appear in many curriculums, there is still a tentativeness against using its full potential. T. S. Eliot discusses this tendency for people to be too close minded about comparing works or allowing writers to take inspiration from others, saying that “no poet, no artist of any art, has his complete meaning alone” (Eliot 152). If students only have a teacher’s feedback on their work, they are unable to gain inspiration from the ideas and writing of their peers. The benefits of peer editing outweigh the extra time and the extra lessons needed for teachers to explain how best to