Remember that special English teacher who taught you to write?   How he or she labored to edit papers, filling the margins with red scribbles?  A noble effort, but one with limited scalability.  Also too easy for weaker writers to hide in the shadows until the waves of red ink subsided.

How do we encourage Eagles at Acton Academy to improve their writing skills, without involving an adult?  By having a community where each Eagle is expected to become a strong writer, and each Eagle’s writing is posted for all to see.

We begin with a challenging question at 9 AM Monday morning. For example:

You are a noted astrophysicist who discovers a large asteroid is likely to destroy earth in 30 days.  Will you:

• Spend time with your spouse and ten and twelve year old children, who you have neglected because of your career;
• Dig deeply into your spiritual life and whether God and an afterlife exist; or
• Answer the President’s call to help launch a missile to destroy the asteroid, even though you believe this is a futile effort?

By Tuesday afternoon, first drafts begin to go up on a board, without a name attached.  Someone from your Writing Group will choose your paper to critique, offering specific advice after learning about a new topic such as “strong opening sentences” or “choosing vivid verbs.”  Specific lessons about grammar come from an online program, ironically called “No Red Ink.”

On Wednesday afternoon, Writing Groups assemble and someone reads your paper aloud, as each team member offers “warm” and “cool” verbal critique, to add to the written critique you’ve received.

Now it’s time for revision and perhaps a pass through an automatic grammar checking program, imperfect but a good start.  Next drafts must be posted by noon on Friday, with your name attached.  You read your final draft aloud to your group, and a winner is chosen.  The best work is read aloud to the entire class, and a Journal contest winner is chosen for the week.

If this is a particularly important paper, it may be revisited and polished next week as well.

Notice that your work always is posted for all to see.  You and others must walk past it every day.  Many pause to read the writing of others.  It’s almost impossible to resist comparing your writing and looking for ways to improve.

Learning to write well, in community, through hard work and revision, with no adult intervention.  No red ink required.