The rise of social media has been impressive. Its use has also tripled in the past few years. But educators, parents, and teachers have all different views on the impact that social media can have on students. While some believe it offers no value to students and can affect their academic performance negatively, the reverse is the case for others.
But according to ThesisHelpers, the use of social media can be helpful in teaching students how to write better. So let’s dive into ways in which the students can develop perfect writing skills using social media.
- The use of autocorrect
The use of incomplete words during conversations on social media is tempting and rampant. But it’s a matter of choice. Take a look at Whatsapp, which is considered to be one of the most popular social communication platforms. Whatsapp supports the use of keyboards with autocorrect enabled in them.
So, when you write, even if you’re typing the incomplete word, autocorrect shows you the right word, and probably a few synonyms you can use. And the good thing about this keyboard type is that it doesn’t only make communication clearer and fast. It can also help students to improve their spelling and writing skills over time. Also, students can be encouraged to turn on spell check on Facebook chat and messages.
- Boost the ability to write concisely
Social media platforms, in particular, Twitter, do not allow the use of too many words. As of today, the regular Twitter post is limited to only 140 characters, and it has remained so since the launch of this platform.
So, creating posts on such a platform can encourage students to write with fewer words and be more efficient and precise, which is exactly what writing entails. People barely have time to read long texts these days. So, learning how to be brief is a good writing skill to develop. Also, using fewer characters on Twitter means that students need to proofread several times to fit in the right word count, which is something that can enable them to improve their writing skills faster.
Thus, students can be asked to provide a summary of the day’s lecture by creating a post on Twitter or other social media platform from time to time. They may also be asked to either tell a story or narrate past events using social media.
As we can see, such an approach can help improve students’ writing skills. It can add more creativity to their writing and make them understand how to say great things with fewer words. Social media is also another excellent place to teach students different concepts of writing, such as word choice, syntax, and clarity of speech.
- A way to enjoy the act
The only easy way to improve your writing is to enjoy it and practice regularly. And this means that one has to read and write consistently. One impressive thing about social media is that it provides an opportunity for students to write as much as they want. They can write hundreds of words per day without getting bored.
Of course, when you are sure that your post will be seen and read by a wide audience, your motivation to write increases. It goes without saying that when students write and find hundreds of people liking their posts, they are encouraged to put more effort into the process.
- Boost confidence in writing
Many students don’t have much self-confidence; therefore, they find it challenging to improve their writing skills. But social media can help to instill that confidence. They can get instant feedback from other experts or gurus on social media, which can be of great help in their journey to becoming a better writer.
Believe it or not – fear tends to vanish when students log in to their social media accounts and start posting or chatting. They can even produce thousands of words within a few seconds while they are on social media. There are numerous writing groups on LinkedIn, Facebook, and other social media platforms, where students can get help on writing when the need arises.
- Use of writing tools
There have been several changes in social media recently, which is helping to transform the way students write on different platforms. Free editing tools such as Grammarly are now integrated into social media platforms like Facebook to help people write with little to no error.
What this means is that students will be able to edit their write-ups while writing. And with a tool like Grammarly, it won’t be hard to enhance their writing skills.
Conclusion
Social media has now become a big part of our daily lives. Many people can’t live a day without visiting their social media accounts. But the love students have for these platforms can be used as an advantage to improve their writing skills. Teachers can make students to share their opinions on a topic or request them to conduct research and discuss it on their social media pages for their fellow students or classmates to read.