Running head: WRITING IS KEY FOR STUDENT COMPREHENSION

WRITING IS KEY FOR STUDENT COMPREHENSION

TAYLOR SHAW
FRANCIS MARION UNIVERSITY

WRITING IS KEY FOR STUDENT COMPREHENSION

Introduction
As many people already know, todays students are struggling more than ever with
comprehending materials. There are several ways for teachers to help their students comprehend
material better, but writing about the material is one of the easiest and most common ways to do
it, especially if they are trying to comprehend material they have read. After doing research on
how to improve students overall comprehension of materials, evidence shows that having by
students write about the text they read, take notes and write summaries of materials on a regular
basis, students, in the end, comprehend material better.
As research shows, reading and writing are related in all kinds of ways, such as reading
articles or books and writing papers or summaries. However, even though they are related many
researchers, like Graham and Hebert (2010), note that reading and writing are always taught
separately as different subjects. Reading and writing are both very important disciplines for
students to learn. Writing, in particular is very important because it is an essential factor when it
comes to a students comprehension of material. McLeod and Soven (1992) thought of writing to
learn as a way to demonstrate what a person has learned while also being a way of learning as
well. This shows that if teachers use the writing to learn process in their classroom, their
students would be more likely to learn and understand the material. The writing to learn process
is quite simple. All the teacher has to do is have the students write about a written text or
subject, and then the students gain more knowledge just by writing the information down.
Enhancing Comprehension by Writing Notes
Of course like most processes, there is more than one correct way to do it. It is the same
with the writing to learn process, and one way to enhance student comprehension is by having
the students take notes about material they have read. Graham and Hebert (2010) say that

WRITING IS KEY FOR STUDENT COMPREHENSION

writing about a text is a kinesthetic way for students to enhance their comprehension. By saying
this, they are merely agreeing to the fact that if students write about something they read, they
will get an overall better understanding of that material. There have been several studies that
show if students write about a text they read, overall their grades will improve. Mary Beth Culp
and Sylvia Spann (1985), researchers, did a study at the University of South Alabama to see if
writing about material they read really improved the students overall grade (Culp & Spann,
1985). Their study was conducted on forty freshmen, dividing them into two groups, the control
group and the experiment group. The freshman in the control group read the material, but after
they only discussed it in class. The experiment group did the in text writing assignments after
they read the material (Culp & Spann, 1985). In the end their experiment was successful
showing that the students who did the reading and writing comprehended the materials better
than the group who did not (Culp & Spann, 1985). With this study, it is evident that students
who write about the text they read are going to comprehend materials better.
Another great way to promote writing to learn in the classroom is by having students take
notes while reading the written material given to them. It is crucial for students to take notes
while reading to help students comprehend material a lot better than if they just read or look over
the text (Graham & Hebert, 2010). Graham and Hebert believe that when readers take notes they
are blending the new information with information they already know. By doing that, readers
create a better understanding of the text they are reading. Note taking, overall, is a skill that will
not only help students while they are in school, but it will help them when they go out into the
real world. Students who take good notes tend to be more organized, which will help them if
they need to go back over material. Of course not all students are good note takers, so teachers

WRITING IS KEY FOR STUDENT COMPREHENSION

need to reach out to their students and show them how to correctly take notes. In the end, if
students take good notes, they are going to learn so much more.
Enhancing Comprehension by Writing Summaries
Finally, the last, but not least, way to incorporate writing to learn in the classroom is
having students write a summary of a text they are given is proven to enhance their writing and
understanding of the material. Wallace, Pearman, Hail, and Hurst (2007).believe that
summarizing is useful for writing in all grade levels in any content area because it involves
processes of thinking and writing (Wallace, Pearman, Hail, & Hurst, 2007). Knowing this,
teachers can have their students use this method in all classroom subjects. This is a really great
way for teachers to see how much their students actually know about something. For example, a
teacher could have a student write a summary about how they got an answer to a math problem.
By doing this, the teacher is learning if the student actually knows how to answer the math
problem correctly or if that student needs a little more help.
Writing summaries also enhances students ability to paraphrase things they have read.
Summarizing a text helps readers to paraphrase written works from the authors point of view,
but they write it in their own words (Wallace, Pearman, Hail, & Hurst, 2007). This is extremely
important for students to know how to do. Along with helping them comprehend materials, they
need to know how to paraphrase correctly because if they do not, they could be accused of
plagiarizing.
Another good thing about having students write summaries is that it can really help
students with their reading comprehension. In Graham and Heberts research of high school,
middle school, and elementary school students comprehension while writing summaries about a
text, they found when students wrote summaries about a text there was an impact that was

WRITING IS KEY FOR STUDENT COMPREHENSION

consistently positive (Graham & Hebert, 2010). Reading comprehension is a necessary skill
everyone needs to have. People do so much reading in life every day. If having students write
summaries helps their reading comprehension, it can help them in life other than when they are
at school.
Conclusion
Teachers, in the end, are responsible for students and what they learn. If students do not
learn how to read and write like they are supposed to at the correct grade level, it can impact the
rest of their learning throughout their entire time in school, and possibly their life. Because
teachers are held responsible for the students learning, they want to make sure they do everything
they can to help their students learn as much as they can while they are in their classroom.
Comprehension of material is essentially what all teachers strive for when teaching their
students. For teachers to achieve their goal, they must first understand that writing to learn is a
key component to comprehension. Once they realize that, they will be able to teach their
students almost anything. Having students write about texts, write summaries and take notes
regularly on the text they read is vital for teachers if they want their students to comprehend
material better.

WRITING IS KEY FOR STUDENT COMPREHENSION

References
Culp, M. B., & Spann, S. (1985). The influence of writing on reading. Journal of teaching
writing, 4(2), 284-289.
Graham, S., & Hebert, M. (2010). Writing to read.
McLeod, S. H., & Soven, M. (1992). Writing across the curriculum. Writing Across the
Curriculum, Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Wallace, R., Pearman, C., Hail, C., & Hurst, B. (2007). Writing for comprehension. Reading
Horizons, 48(1), 41.