Kids inherit a lot from their parents, including certain talents that give them a natural ability to do some things better than their peers. This is something we have seen all the time; children are inheriting their parent’s singing ability, acting ability, athletic ability and even intelligence. But is writing one of those skills kids can inherit from their parents?
Can Writing Skills Be Inherited?
When parents have mastered the art of writing, it is not that big of a stretch to imagine that their kids will be great writers too. If you look at the world of writing, you will find examples of parent-child writing pairs that show that the writing gene is real. Examples include the Waugh Family (consisting of Arthur Waugh and his two sons Evelyn and Alec), Kingsley Amis and Martin Amis and Stephen King and Joe Hill (pen name of Joseph Hillstrom King).
There is even research that can back this up.
According to a study conducted by Yale-Moscow State University, researchers found that writing, creative writing, in particular, has an element of familiarity and heritability that is “modest but statistically significant.” The researchers came to this conclusion after giving 511 children and one or both of their parents (326 fathers and 489 mothers) a series of writing exercises to ascertain if creative writing is familial and heritable.
Another study by Australian researchers who were looking at academic performance revealed something interesting as well. The researchers found that math, reading, and spelling skills are 75% genetic, while writing skills are 50% genetic. The researchers used NAPLAN twin tests to come to these conclusions.
How to Master Writing Skills
Based on the examples and the research outlined in the previous section, it is easy to conclude that writing skills can indeed be inherited. But one thing to pay attention to is that even if kids inherit a parent’s writing ability, these abilities need to be nurtured and encouraged as well. And to help their children become excellent writers, one needs to master their own writing skills. Here are some tips.
#1. Master the Basics
If one cannot master the basics of writing, they cannot master their writing skills. There is no need to take writing classes just to learn the basics of writing since there are plenty of articles and videos online that teach them in great detail, helping one improve their spelling, grammar, and punctuation.
#2. Read a Lot
This is one activity that must be done every day if writing skills are to be improved. Reading has been proven to enhance creative thinking and expand vocabulary, something that can make one a better writer. While reading is a good habit to develop, it is also important to take note of ideas, thoughts, words, and phrases the authors you are reading use to make their writing great.
#3. Write Everyday
As with any skill, the more one practices, they better they become at it. That is why writing every day is recommended. Over time, this will develop into a habit and will become second nature as writing skills improve. A good way to practice writing every day is to start a blog.
#4. Use Online Resources
The internet is also filled with plenty of tools that one can use to sharpen their writing skills. The one part of English that everyone struggles with, even native English speakers, is grammar. Resources that have been proven to help with grammar are Grammarly and Grammar Girl. Also, in order to learn how to use words in the right content and to expand vocabulary, online dictionaries like Merriam-Webster and Oxford Dictionaries are a big help.
#5. Learn to Take Criticism
As humans, we are not great at taking criticism, but it is something that is vital to our continued growth and development in everything that we do. That is why it is important to get a second pair of eyes, whether it is a friend or our professor, to look at the piece we have written and ask for honest feedback. When the feedback comes, it is best not to take it personally and use it to make the piece better.
#6. Get Essay Writing Help
Sometimes, professional help, as in people who are paid to help with writing work, is the best option if we want to improve our writing skills. There are plenty of custom writing services that can be hired to write an essay on any topic to see how it is done professionally. This piece can then used to study sentence structure, word choice, consistency and other criteria that makes any piece of writing great.
#7. Track Improvement
One way anyone can tell if their writing has improved is to track progress. The best way to do this is to save all writing work in one place and review it over time to see how better it has gotten. It can be saved in something as simple as a physical notebook or an online system like Google Docs. Furthermore, another way to track progress is to find old pieces, rewrite them and review the improvements. Google Docs, in particular, has a great version control system that can show the author all the changes they have made to a document.
It appears that the writing gene is real and parents can indeed pass on their writing affinity to their children. The next logical step is for parents who want their kids not to struggle with writing is to become expert writers themselves. This increases the chances of passing the gene to their kids.