How to teach: English - Chris Curtis 2019

Repetition
How to teach writing – Part 2

Deliberate repetition is one of the most underused techniques, and it is one of the easiest to deploy in any piece of writing. If a student has a limited vocabulary, it can be hard to tell them to use better words, but anyone can use repetition for effect provided you have given them explicit permission to do so. Students tend to think that repetition means lazy and boring writing. How many times do we moan when things are repetitive and monotonous? It is understandable when a student is writing and hoping to achieve ’perfection’ that they want to avoid something with usually negative association.

When getting students to write a creative piece, I always show them how repetition can be used for effect. I like to do this with a before and after.

Example 1: The water trickled down the walls as I walked through the cave. Silence. I felt uncertain about what to do. My eyes started to get used to the lack of light. Then. I saw it.

I often get students to have a go at adding repetition to the example before showing one I’ve prepared earlier. Either that or I amend the example on the visualiser.

Example 2: The water tricked down the walls, down the stalagmites, down the stalactites, as I walked through the cave. Silence. I felt uncertain about what to do, uncertain what to think, uncertain what to wonder. Silence. My eyes started to get used to the lack of light. Silence. My eyes focused. My eyes saw something. Far. Close. Near. By me.

We discuss the benefits of repeating things in the pattern of three and how that plays with our expectations in a story. Then I get students to explore how paragraphing can be used for effect.

Example 3: The water tricked down the walls, down the stalagmites, down the stalactites, as I walked through the cave.

Silence.

I felt uncertain about what to do, uncertain what to think, uncertain what to wonder.

Silence.

My eyes started to get used to the lack of light.

Silence. My eyes focused. My eyes saw something.

Far.

Close.

Near.

By me.

I find that when you give students the permission to use repetition you get some of their best writing. And I make it the focus for a piece of work. I make sure I’m not asking them to use seventeen different techniques at the same time. I want them to use repetition for effect. But we have to challenge the notion that repetition is boring. I said, repetition is not boring. Not boring at all.