Written expression is a crucial part of communication and critical thinking. For a secondary school student, developing strong writing skills not only helps your school grades, but also prepares you for your academic and professional future. Whether writing essays, taking notes or applying for scholarships, you must learn to develop your ideas and proofread your written work before sharing it.
Grammar and Punctuation
Clarity in writing is crucial to how the reader receives the text. Therefore, you must employ proper grammar and punctuation in your writing. A student will write an essay assignment differently than an e-mail to a friend because the audience for each text is distinct. Understanding audience and learning to adjust to the needs of the reader is an important aspect of written expression. To create professional and mature writing, you must learn to proofread your work before submitting it, whether in the classroom or for scholarship or job applications.
Note-Taking
Note-taking is an important form of written expression for both secondary school and Higher institution students. Writing ideas down preserves them so that you can reflect upon them later.” Note-taking also prepares you for exams, helps you interpret written and oral material, and helps plan and organise essays and projects. Key note-taking skills include identifying main points, sub-points and supporting details, and structuring the written material into a logical format. Prioritising and organising are essential to written expression at any level.
Developing Ideas
You should learn to expand, explain and develop your idea through your writing. Writing stimulates you to extend a line of thought beyond your first impressions or gut responses. This process can deepen your critical thinking skills, challenge your assumptions, and strengthen your overall writing. Examples of writing development include providing specific examples, identifying the relationship between two seemingly unrelated ideas or events, and analysing the causes and effects of an issue.
Higher Institution Preparation
Strengthening your writing skills prepares you to apply for and succeed in college and university courses. For example, you must write an essay for the SSCE exams. Once in higher institution, you will have to employ your written expression skills on assignments ranging from lab reports to research papers. Therefore, creating a strong foundation of writing skills in secondary school will prepare you for success after graduation.
