Imagine this… you walk into a session, your student tells you that they have a paper due soon, they log on to the computer, open a new Word Document, anddddd that’s all they’ve got. What would you do? Where would you start? How can you help? Drawing blank when working on writing assignments is common, I’m sure you’ve probably had your own writer’s block experiences. IT. HAPPENS. In this post we have put together a few strategies to help you help your students in these situations.
Getting Started:
- Generate a list of possible paper topics.
- Encourage your student to consult with their professor on potential ideas.
- Try various brainstorming techniques such as trees, maps, “reporter’s questions” (who, what, when, where, how, why), free-writing, free-doodling, or looping free-writing (free-write fast for 2-5 minutes, read over, highlight/circle most interesting sentence or phrase, write it down & start another free-write from that sentence for 2-5 minutes – looping free-writes are especially good for narrowing topics discovering a thesis).
- Encourage your student to phrase potential thesis as a question they’d like to explore, answer, or argue about in their research/writing.
Writing the Draft:
- Allow your student to work independently while writing.
- Let them write fast and turn off their “internal editor” – they can turn it back on when revising and editing!
- For help with organization, try using note cards with main ideas written on them and physically move them around into different patterns until your student finds an order that they like.
Breaking Through Blocks:
- Take breaks. Allow your student to get up and move around if needed. Laps around the facility or even a quick breath of fresh air outside could spark inspiration!
- Have your student write questions. Start with things like “What do you want to know about the subject?” and “What interests you?”
- Allow your students to “fake it”. Have them imagine they’re writing a letter to a friend, a journal entry, or just telling someone about the topic. Remind them that it’s just a draft, not “the real thing.”