Creating materials for teaching essay writing in upper secondary school

Abstract

Writing is often seen as culturally specific, learned behaviour (Brown 2001: 334). A student who is able to write an excellent essay in one’s mother tongue might not be able to do it in a foreign language (Kaplan 2001). Thus, essay writing is a skill which needs to be taught consistently. When writing an English essay, one has to consider several aspects; in addition to using appropriate vocabulary and grammar along with correct spelling and punctuation, development of ideas, as well as requirements established to organisation, are to be paid attention to. To foster that students focus on the content rather than just the accuracy of their essays, principles of the process approach could be beneficial.