For some reason when people start writing it becomes formal and unemotional. 

Did you watch the football last night? I’m not much of a football fan (my dad, brother, uncle, grandad were all Leighton Orient supporters, which probably explains a lot…) but I do enjoy watching the England matches, especially when the result goes our way!

Years ago now, I was working with a lad and he asked if we could do his homework. The statement was: You are in a hot air balloon over the Atlantic. It is losing height. The only way to prevent it from going into the sea is to throw someone overboard. Write your argument as to why it shouldn’t be you (you can be anyone, fictitious or real, but your goal is to persuade them that you should stay in the basket).

I’ve done this with a few people over the years since. I thought it would be really easy as the goal is to fight for your life, which you would imagine people would get emotional over!

However, that doesn’t seem to be the case…

When people start writing it becomes formal and unemotional.

So, another piece I have done with people to try and provoke those emotions is to ask them to build a house of cards. For most people it goes disastrously wrong the first time or two. You get the first one or two standing, but the next one sends them all cascading back down.

Frustration.

You try again.

Another disaster.

You try again.

It falls, you inwardly curse.

Another attempt, maybe a bit more luck this time, but just as you think you’ve done it…

Now they are feeling really annoyed and frustrated ask them to write about the event.

Think about the emotions as you watch it slide away in a tsunami of cards for the umpteenth time. Suddenly, it is something much easier to write about. You might want to jot down some words on paper before you begin writing, or you might just want to get your frustrations down onto paper and then tweak it once achieved.

Something concrete that you can relate to is so much easier than writing about something that it is complete fictitious. I know you can’t build a house of cards in the exam to get your emotions raised, but we’re at least a year away from that at the moment, so we have time to get started and build up over the coming months.

I hope you ‘enjoy’ it and don’t become too annoyed if you have a go.

Have a great week and enjoy the football on Sunday if you watch it.

Each week we send out an email on the Monday to help you to support your child with their primary school curriculum, then on the Thursday we send out one like this one to support secondary school students. If you would like to receive it, let me know and I will make sure you get it.

info@clarajamestutoring.co.uk