Any language has four basic skills – listening, speaking, reading and writing. We acquire these skills in order of their arrangement. We first listen and repeat what we hear, then speak those words and sentences, later we learn to read the alphabet and only then start writing.

So, writing skill comes last of these four skills. Only after a lot of listening, speaking and reading one can write. When a child is in grade one, he has just learnt the alphabet and subconsciously understood that he can string letters to form words. This process of learning goes on for the next five years by when the child has learnt the basic set of words for communicating with people around him.

As the child grows up his writing skill is supposed to keep improving with the help of his teachers and parents. Only if they guide him constantly he will improve. But usually this doesn’t happen. There is more of talking and less of writing. The opportunity to develop the writing skill is limited to the child. Thereby, the child slowly but unconsciously develops a disregard for writing itself.

When the child has reached the high school level, the focus shifts to acquiring knowledge from Science, Social Studies and other such subjects. Grammatical structures and their correctness take a backseat when these subjects are learnt. Content alone becomes important to the child. So, how to improve writing skills even as the child continues to acquire worldly knowledge?

Well, improving the writing skills does really happen only during the English classes. It is the primary duty of the English teacher to give ample opportunities for the child to compose short paragraphs which can slowly develop into an essay. Children should write letters during class hours. English teachers should teach grammar that would pave way for standard written English.

Children should realize that making mistakes while writing isn’t a bad thing. Writing improves only by writing. Constant motivation and correction can help students like ‘writing’ basically.