I want to draw your attention to something that you probably haven't paid much attention to, and it will blow your mind when you realise it....it did mine!
As obvious as it is (when you're aware) not many of us actually see it until its pointed out (I got my alert from
Brave Writer).
Whether you read newspapers, books or online articles, one thing for sure is we're all used to reading good writing.
Most of us read the work of professional writers in some way every day. We know what good writing looks like, and we know what it does not.
So when our child steps forward to present before us their humble piece of work, in all its unedited glory, we see how it doesn't even come close to the good writing we are more accustomed to interacting with from professional writers.
What we miss, is the fact that all the professional writing we read, has been drafted, proof-read, edited, and corrected before we set our eyes upon it.
And yet we still somehow expect (even without realising we do it) that our child should be able to produce a piece of written work equal in stature, free from misspellings and grammatical errors... on the first attempt.
Wow, right!
The good news is, once we realise this, there are a lot of fun ways we can help encourage our children to improve their writing skills, and importantly, develop their writers voice. Because lets face it, no matter how grammatically correct a piece of writing may be, it is the writer's unique voice which propels that writing forward and makes it something special.
