Writing Skills for Success in Adult Education
Strategies for Writing Effective Essays and Other Written Work
Developing effective writing skills for adult education is essential for adult learners’ successful completion of any college course. Like most things in life, writing takes practice to build the skills necessary to write clearly and concisely to communicate a desired idea or thought. Written communication is also a core requirement for success in most careers fields.
In adult education, learning strategies for writing are important because of the variety of assignments adult learners are required to complete. Typical assignments include essays and compositions although other types include literature reviews, creative writing, research papers, critiques, and theses. Writing skills also includes the ability to proofread writing assignments.
Essay Writing: Completing Written Assignments In-Class
In-class writing assignments normally include essay exams, open-book exams, compositions, and critiques. The following are strategies for organizing and writing these types of assignments.
Outlines – adult learners with good writing skills spend half of their allotted time creating an outline before completing the writing assignment. This ensures that each important idea is organized and supporting information is identified. Instructors demand specifics and not generalities, a good outline highlights specifics. Outlines also help organize topic statements, body, and closing parts.
Graphic Organizers – if an outline is not effective for an adult student's learning style, then try using a concept map or flow chart.
Chronological Order – this writing strategy allows an instructor or other reader to follow the chain of events with in the paper.
General to Specific – begin with a broad topics or ideas, move to sub-topics or transition from theoretical to practical as examples.
Most to Least – begin with information that has the most ideas or known facts then follow up with least known ideas or facts.
Least to Most – begin with least known information and follow with information that is most known. Another example is to begin with the least controversial and end with the most controversial information.
Both Sides – write from the perspective of pros and cons, effective and ineffective, bad and good.
Proof Reading – this essential writing skill is necessary to ensure that the written work follows required guidelines, writing is clear and concise, writing is legible, no grammatical errors, and no punctuation errors.
Writing Process: Completing Writing Assignments Out-of-Class
The writing process and writing skills necessary for out-of-class assignments are different, although similar to the in-class process. Often adult students can select their own topic or in some cases the topic is selected by the instructor. Examples of out-of-class work include research papers, book reviews, and critiques.
Out-of-class writing is completed in three stages and includes prewriting/planning, writing, and revising/editing. The following is an overview of these three stages, along with writing strategies.
Prewriting/Planning Process – this process requires thinking about the focus of the assignment, select the topic of the paper, and develop a clear and concise thesis or central idea.
- Research for information needed to support the topic. A general rule of thumb is that three resources are needed as a minimum; however, an instructor may require more. Take notes when researching and avoid taking detailed notes, because this often leads to unintended plagiarizing.
- Another general rule of thumb is that twice the sources are needed to write a paper.
- Organization using an outline or concept map is critical for organizing information gathered for writing the paper. This writing process helps ensure all required information is included in the written assignment.
Writing Process – writing a first draft is the beginning of this stage. Just like all writing assignments the draft should include who, what, where, when, why, and how. One draft is typically not and enough, multiple drafts are often necessary.
Revising/Editing Process – this process includes several steps.
- A conceptual revision is necessary to ensure that main ideas are addressed and arguments support the main idea.
- An organization revision is necessary to ensure that the writing is clear and concise. The body of the paper has appropriate supporting evidence and there are clear transitions between parts.
- A spelling and grammar revision is necessary to check for punctuation, capitalization, verb tense, and spell check are completed.
Making Connections: Writing Skills and Strategies for Writing
Adult learners must develop effective writing skills to achieve their educational goals in adult education programs. Good writing skills come with using effective strategies for writing. Adult students are required to complete writing assignments both in- and out-of-class, which require different writing strategies. These strategies in adult education courses also transfer to the workplace and adults with good writing skills are typically more successful in most career fields.
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