Specific Not Vague

It’s not really helpful to advise ESL students to “Be Specific.” They frequently don’t understand what you mean. Read aloud the following sentence in place of the familiar and fairly specific “Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth, upon this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal: Sometime ago some people brought forth in some place some nation conceived in something and dedicated to” in a famous and great piece of writing like the Gettysburg Address. This is encouraging: ESL Students may begin laughing when they know the Gettysburg Address and see how awful the modification is. They are starting to comprehend the value of effective writing, which is encouraging.

Be Audience aware

Another issue with vague student writing is that many ESL students lack a true sense of who they are writing to and are therefore unconcerned with whether or not their audience will understand them. This sense of audience is created by having students work in peer review groups where they read and remark on each other’s work. Then, the students will pause and consider, “Will the group understand ”stuff’? After the groups have worked together for a while, it could be beneficial to switch up the groups and have students review each other’s work with a classmate who is somewhat new to them and unfamiliar with their writing.

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