Essay writing is an essential skill that plays a part in your child’s academic success, as well as their future professional endeavours. Whilst schools provide guidance and instruction on writing well-formulated essays, the role of parental support should not be underestimated.
Parents play a crucial role in developing their child’s writing abilities by providing constructive feedback and encouragement. Below we look at how parents can contribute to their child’s essay writing skills.
Encouraging Reading
A love of reading greatly influences a child’s ability to write effectively, especially when it comes to essays. Parents can encourage reading from a young age, by introducing age-appropriate books and encouraging regular reading habits.
As a parent and role model, you can also encourage reading by reading yourself, something many adults have grown out of since the development of technology. Having a strong reading list helps us main brain development too and lead by example as a role model.
Reading with your children exposes them to different writing styles, storytelling techniques, and vocabulary. Additionally, sharing opinions and discussing books can help develop your child’s critical thinking skills, strengthening their ability to express their thoughts when writing essays.
Celebrating Effort
Celebrating the effort that your child puts into an academic essay is so important. Notice here that we didn’t write about celebrating achievements. Although celebrating a good grade goes without saying, it’s important that we don’t support the idea that grades are all that matter. As children get older and school puts huge pressure on their shoulders, all they want is the recognition that they tried their best.
Every child has a different intellectual level, and children should be celebrated for putting in the effort of writing an essay, even if improvements are needed. They are more likely to love writing and put in the extra work next time if they are celebrated for their effort, rather than the grade achieved.
Hiring a Tutor
Essay writing is a difficult skill to master, so if you don’t have strong written skills, it may be beneficial to hire a tutor to help. Tutoring a student struggling with academic writing can help them develop their literacy skills in a structured way, so they can feel supported whilst understanding the essay question main point and complete a quality academic paper.
Tutors can also provide personalised feedback on the first draft to help your child improve their essay before handing it in, ensuring their opening paragraph, main argument, and key points are free from grammar errors, common mistakes and give a clear argument.
Tutors can give expert one-to-one support and essay writing tips, ensuring more detail and a strong argument to the very end.
Using Visual Aids
Some essays require children to interpret data and then write about it. For visual learners, seeing a load of data written down on paper can be daunting. If your child needs help making sense of data so they can write about it, try using visual aids to help them get their point across. This pie chart maker, for example, is a great tool for turning data into easy-to-understand visuals for children who need a bit of extra support.
By encouraging reading, celebrating effort, and using visual aids, you can encourage your child to develop strong essay writing skills. For children who need extra support, consider hiring a tutor.
