Conclusion

“The mission of each sentence is to make the reader want to read the next one”.

Good writing is a product comprising much more than good grammar, punctuation and spelling. In fact, most times as we write (mainly type), the GPS engines fix most of the mistakes we make. Good writing is more than GPS corrections.

George Bernard Shaw famously said, “The mission of each sentence is to make the reader want to read the next one”. This is at the core of what Scribo is all about. We want every student to be the best writer they can be, to be articulate and interesting with text. Our clear intention via Scribo is to provide a functional assistant for teachers and students to advance writing skills. With insights into where help and mentoring is needed, and instant feedback coming from Scribo, students and teachers both have access to what they need.

Classroom processes to help improve writing need more support. The forever-full bag of words that teachers carry is often busy work to complete after hours. This should not be the end point of being an English or humanities teacher, but rather the beginning of being able to help each student with targeted instruction without having to read a word.

Many teachers say there are two key turning points to improving writing skills across cohorts. The first is to get students freely practising writing, taking more ownership in their work quality. The second is teachers working dramatically less hours reviewing and grading student texts and more on targeted instruction.

If the question is “ How do we improve student writing levels?”, we believe there are two good answers. Firstly, we need to do more for students than offer them simple and multi-varied GPS assistance. Feedback needs to be about the writing not just GPS. Secondly, we need to use smarter technology to increase student ownership in writing, dramatically reduce teacher review and grading hours, build instant teacher and student insights and give students good feedback as they write.

Teachers who do the same thing over and over again hoping writing improvement will simply just grow, really have their head under a rock. By adding a dash of what is possible with a little bit of clever technology support, they will be helping themselves, students and the future of the next generation of writers.