Home | How It Works | Stats Login | Register         Case: Creative Writing This has been going on for some time. Some of the students in my 7th grade English class cannot distinguish between school writing and everyday speaking. They write like they speak. A lot of my students are African American, and they tend to use Ebonics in their writing. I have been trying to correct their writing errors since the beginning of the school, which was three months ago, but they still continue writing like they are speaking. I talked to the other English teacher at school to see how she deals with this issue if she has it. She said she did not pay attention to the writing errors if students were doing creative writing. I disagree with her. Even in creative writing, students should follow the rules of the language closely. The main problem is almost all of my African American students are failing my class while that is not the case with the other English teacher. Should I reconsider my position on this issue? I feel like my position shows high expectations; but I am not sure any more. Solution: (Rates are posted for this solution!) If it is a creative writing assignment, I don't think you should grade them so strictly. If you are constantly focused on grammar and mechanics, you may lose sight of the students' message in the papers. Also, when students write and they are constantly reprimanded for grammar, they are less likely to be excited about writing the next time. Time after time, you will not only have the lack of grammar, but you will begin to see a lack of substance. I would allow the students to write however they wanted in creative writing assignments. However, if it was a research paper, I would explain to them the importance of using proper grammar, mechanics, and spelling. I would teach the students exactly what I meant by this. Only then would I take off points. I would make it clear which assignments were considered creative writing and which were not. I don't think your expectations are too high. I would just use caution when approaching this because you don't want the students to dread writing assignments.