Teaching Someone to Write

It is hard for me to say exactly when I learned how to write in college. I am far from a perfect writer, but writing has always, for the most part, been natural to me. Even though I was not born reading and writing when I learned to do these things I do not remember struggling with the process.

The only formal writing class I have had at Weber, before English 3840, has been English 2010. This class was very helpful for me, but I am not sure that we were actually taught exactly how to write. We mostly read different types of essays and articles to see different styles of writing. Then we would write a paper using that certain style or technique.

Technically, I am an English Teaching major. This is my first semester where the majority of my classes are English classes. As exciting as that is, I purposely took certain classes that would help me decide whether or not I really want to go into teaching. The question, can we actually teach writing, has hit close to home for me. Ever since this question was asked a couple of weeks ago in class I have been thinking about it. Looking back on my former education experiences and my tutoring sessions, I would probably have to say that I can not teach some one to write. The main reason I say this is because I have found that I have a hard time articulating what I know to someone who does not understand. I know that two plus two equals four and I know that a noun is a person, place, thing, or idea, but I do not know how to explain that to someone who does not know these things.

Ok, I have confessed that I can not teach some one to write, let alone tutor someone. I do believe that there are people out there who can. What I would like to know is how can you teach someone to write? There are still eleven weeks left of the semester, so I figure that in order to help my tutees I should find out the secrets behind tutoring.