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!) I think this teacher has a very valid point. In class, we learn that we all have different speaking ways and this is something we are born with. We speak to our friends one way, at school one way, at work another way, at church a different way, etc. I think it is important to be able to separate this languages. I do think that creative writing is a way for students to express themselves, but grammar should always be looked at and fixed. If students are not corrected then how will they know what is right from wrong?