Have Students Write Better by Writing Less with Google Docs

[Eric Curts]

Certainly one of our goals as educators is for students to write more. However, that does not necessarily mean to write more words. Quite the opposite, there are actually several benefits that come from having our student write fewer words. By that what I mean is having students distill their ideas down to just the most important, relevant, clear, and concise words. By putting limits on the number of words or characters our students can use, this forces students to:

• Summarize key points
  
• Select what is most important
  
• Choose words that best convey meaning
  
• Restate concepts
  
• Avoid unnecessary filler and fluff
  

See the link below for details and directions on how students can use the "Word Count" tool in Google Docs to easily check the amount of words and/or characters they have written. This can be used for writing activities where you put a limit on how long the students’ writing can be. As a bonus there is also a "Compose a Tweet" Google Drawings template for writing activities where you limit the student to 140 characters.

http://www.controlaltachieve.com/2017/01/write-less-with-google-docs.html

Feel free to share with others. Take care!

Eric

Eric Curts eric...@gmail.com | http://www.ControlAltAchieve.com

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