Addressing Writing in Art Classes
Blog posts, project descriptions, copy for an ad campaign, an artist’s statement, website content, trend forecasts… What do all these have in common? Artists are using writing to convey ideas.
But what is good writing? Good writing is writing that responds to the interests and needs of our readers whether online or in print. It is much more than writing that contains no mechanical errors in spelling, punctuation and grammar.
Good writers have:
- A clearly defined purpose to their writing: “Why am I writing this? I want a client to choose me for this project.”
- An understanding of their audience: “Who am I writing for? I am writing for these people in this industry.”
- The ability to revise: “How can I say this better? I can add a specific example and throw out these irrelevant details.”
- A well developed voice: “Does it sound like me?”
- Follow-through to polish the grammar, spelling, punctuation in a final draft: “Is the final version presentable and error-free?”
On-site and on-line teachers can elicit strong writing from students by:
- Giving “industry-like” writing tasks with a clear purpose and audience. For example: Instead of saying, “Write a description of your interior design project” (which has no clear purpose or audience), try this: “Your client is an environmentally conscious 1st time homeowner with 2 children. Write a one page proposal to your client detailing how you will design her house.”
- Allowing time for and encouraging revision. Like art, writing is a process of discovery, drafting, revising, and editing. A writer must first brainstorm ideas. Then, through multiple drafts and revisions, he zeroes in on the message and audience, developing and organizing his ideas. Just as illustrators don’t cut their mounting mattes before they’ve finished their drawing, your students shouldn’t edit or proofread until the content is strong.
- Responding to first drafts or having students respond to each other’s first drafts. “First draft” feedback should guide the writer on content issues not on proofreading. “I like this point. Can you give more examples?” “I’m not sure how this relates to your focus on eco-friendly materials. Can you make this clearer?” Using a rubric with specific criteria to look for is very helpful for both the reader and the writer.
- Assigning frequent, informal writing to help students find their voice. The more practice they get, the less “forced” or “imitative” they will sound.
(*A note on proofreading: it is very tempting to focus on a student’s spelling and grammar. However, this is the last step of the writing process and should be ignored until the final draft when students can get proofreading help.)
Resources
Efficient Ways to improve student writing
Can Poor Writing Skills overshadow good content?
A Generic Sample Rubric for Writing
- Filled out with checkmarks and comments as an example.
- “Development and organization” may not be an appropriate category for very short assignments.
| PASSING |
NOT PASSING |
| |
A (4pts) |
B (3pts) |
C
(2pts) |
D (1pt) |
F (0pt) |
|
| Overall Message |
The message or main point is strong, clear and interesting. |
|
X |
|
|
|
The reader is not left with a clear feeling of what the piece is about. |
Development
& Organization |
All details help bring the main message to life. Ideas flow and build on each other in a logical way. |
|
|
|
X |
|
Details don’t relate to the main message, are poorly developed, or not vividly described. The reader gets confused while reading. Ideas may jump around. |
| Voice |
Language flows well and is appropriate to the audience. Reader can “hear” the writer speaking. |
|
|
X |
|
|
The piece seems to have been written for another audience, or by several different people. It feels awkward. |
| Form |
Sentence flow, grammar, spelling, length & presentation are appropriate. |
|
|
|
X |
|
Grammar, spelling and sentence structure errors cloud the meaning and are severely distracting. |
ASSIGNMENT: Describe your last assignment to a potential client in an email.
COMMENTS: This is a good start. The point of your project is really clear, but I want to know exactly what the components of the identity system that you developed are. I also know that you worked hard to make the ID system mesh with some of the existing publicity materials for the company—this is a strong point that I think you should mention in a couple of sentences. Spell check and proofread—there are far too many spelling mistakes here. This email is business correspondence and it shouldn’t have any errors in it.
Click here to download a Word version of this rubric.
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