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Four Simple Tips to Improve Your Essay Writing Skills in Arabic

root: ق-و-ل / noun / plural: مَقالات /definition: essay, article

So, you’ve studied Arabic for a while now. Simple sentences are old news (i.e. you’re silently pleading for your teacher not to go over jumlah ismiyyah yet again) and you’ve got a decent collection of relevant words all memorised. So you’re all set when your teacher asks you to write an essay about the topic in Arabic…right?

“Wrong!” says the fear in your eyes when you see the word count, as minuscule as it may be; a few hundred words in your native language definitely doesn’t seem as daunting as this .

It’s almost as if writing an essay in our target language makes us forget everything we’ve ever learnt about essays. And writing, unfortunately.

But there’s no need for stress—here’s four easy tips to simplify the process:

1 Think In Arabic

Often, when we’re writing in our target language, we tend to think of the exact sentence we want to produce in our native language then essentially try to translate it as pen hits paper. That’s where the problem comes in.

Trying to write via the process of translation is much more difficult and will most likely make your writing sound unnatural.

Instead, focus on what idea you want to convey and use the Arabic words and structures that you already know to express it. Much easier.

2 Learn “Copy and Paste” Phrases

One effective way to make your writing sound more sophisticated (and, well, to use up more of the word count) is to learn phrases that you can slot into pretty much any essay.

For example, here’s two simple phrases that I found whilst reading through Arabic articles: مهّد/يُمهِّد الطريق لِـ (“to pave the way for”) and على حافة الاِنهِيار (“on the verge of collapse”).

These phrases really came in handy during my writing tasks and exams at university since I could use them in the context of various topics. (A lot of things are on the verge of collapse, apparently).

3 Punctuate !

Okay, so maybe this was just me, but while my essays in English would be full of a plethora of punctuation, my Arabic essays would be lucky to get a comma thrown in. I think it probably took me three years to even get a bracket down on paper.

So throw those commas in! And the semicolons, colons, dashes, etc…

4 Remember What You Know About Essays

Think structure, connectives, varying sentence lengths, creating interest, clarity of expression.

There may be slight differences in certain aspects of writing style between English and Arabic, but don’t forget what you already know about writing essays in general. And definitely try to use Arabic texts as a source from which you can replicate structures and styles.

And, finally, remember that improvement takes practice —so keep writing .

If you have any other tips for writing Arabic essays, or any phrases that you yourself like to use, please do share them in the comments!

Edit: the book How to Write in Arabic (which I talked in the post Arabic Books on My Bookshelf ) has great guidelines for writing different types of text in Arabic—including a section for those “copy and paste” phrases!

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The Simplest Way To Improve Your Arabic Writing

If you are serious in your Arabic learning, you obviously need to follow a plan focused around your learning goals.

Just like with reading and speaking skills, you will need to follow a structured method to improve your Arabic writing skills.

I tried here to avoid the general writing advice that applies to writing in all foreign languages, focusing on the specifics of Arabic language composition.

I will share with  you the practical tips you can use to practice writing in Modern Standard Arabic. 

Please note that what I am sharing with you here does not apply to the colloquial dialects of Arabic.

I will also show you how to use the Arabic keyboard, develop your writing strategy, request writing assignments from your instructor if you have one, and spell correctly without looking it up online in addition to other tips you can incorporate in your learning.

Table of Contents

1.Read.. a lot!

Reading Arabic content is a prerequisite to good Arabic writing. To be able to generate output (write), you will need to be exposed to a good amount and quality of Arabic reading (input) at a regular frequency . 

Picking up a routine of reading Arabic content that is within your level or slightly above it will enrich your vocabulary. 

A suitable reading material is any content you can read and understand 80% of it. Anything less than that is a little too advanced for you at the current stage. To develop a Arabic reading skills, make sure you read this article .

It is important that you are intentional in your reading. That is to say you have to selectively read material that will help you with your language expression needs. 

For instance, if you are a beginner, try to read content that will help you write about yourself, your family and personal interests to equip yourself with the writing vocabulary and tools to meet your written expression needs as a beginner. 

As you progress, try to vary your reading content to cover different types of themes and styles such as comparative, argumentative, narration, instructions , to name a few, so that you can emulate them when you write.

2.Add the Arabic keyboard on your devices

In addition to practicing writing on a notepad the traditional way, it is equally important to add an Arabic keyboard on your phone and electronic devices. 

If you have not done it yet, use this detailed tutorial to add the Arabic keyboard to your iphone and other devices.

While handwriting will give you a kinetic experience in learning how to connect the letters together, the Arabic keyboard will provide you with a convenient way to practice Arabic composition.

You can use your phone Arabic keyboard to type a casual short text message or a newly encountered term or type up a small paragraph during your daily commute or lunch break. 

By incorporating this small adjustment in your daily routine, you are turning the new skill of Arabic typing into a second nature, further enhancing your Arabic writing ability.

3. Mimic writings you like.

There is a huge lack of  tested strategies in teaching Arabic writing. In the Arab world, dictation or orthography was almost the only writing exercise taught in grade schools in the Arab world. 

Composition was never drilled as methodologically as it is in French or English, except for the traditional breakdown of the introduction , body and conclusion . 

This means  you will have to be proactive in learning how to write in Arabic. You will need to select your favorite writing style or author(s) and try to emulate it and hone that skillset as you go. 

Certain Arabic news sites, like Doha-based Aljazeera TV and London-based Saudi daily As-Sharq al-Awsat , adopt modern writing styles. You can visit one or both websites for your daily dose of Arabic news and observe their writing style and word choice. 

Unlike traditional Arab writers, the two above-mentioned sites use a linear informative style with a minimal editorial touch due to their worldwide audiences. 

As you progress and build up your proficiency, you can move up to reading literature if you desire.

4. Adopt the multiple drafts approach.

If you are learning Arabic in a classroom setting and you are not being challenged to write in Arabic, you should raise the issue with your instructor and politely ask for the opportunity to produce writing essays.

Ideally the teacher will adopt the multiple drafts method . You submit your first draft, and the instructor would return it to you with comments on points that need improvement or more elaboration until you submit your third and final draft. 

This method prevents you from procrastinating and allows you to display your  early thinking and analysis, which could disappear if you wait until the last minute to submit a rushed write-up.

Early thinking allows the instructor to guide your writing attempts early on in the process before the pressure of deadlines starts piling up.

Also, by starting early, you focus on delivering good content, which makes for a more enjoyable experience in writing what you have to write. It also provides you with opportunities to  self-critique , improve your paper and re-submit. 

This process will consequently help you hone your Arabic writing skills because it forces you to apply your analytical thinking on your own writing.  

5. Incorporate the terminology and rules you learned.

Take everything you learn about Arabic as parts of a whole, and always think of the larger picture which eventually revolves around communicating effectively in Arabic. 

As you learn new grammar rules and memorize new vocabulary from reading and listening to Arabic content, make a deliberate effort to put everything you learn into practice. 

Incorporate in your writing a nice phrase or idiom you picked up recently and recall the grammatical and spelling rules you have been learning. 

In the Arabic language, there is a rule for everything. If you can’t recall the rule, look it up. For instance,  if you have to use a word that contains the hamza  (ء), see the rule that determines its placement such as its vowel ( harakat ) and that of the letter that precedes it instead of just looking up online how it is spelled. 

As a general rule, if you try to memorize word spellings, you will keep looking them up online; if you grasp the rule that governs the spelling, you will rarely have to look up a word. All you have to do is recall the spelling rule. 

For instance, if you have to write the hamza (ء) with a sukun vowel ْ  , the rule says that if it’s preceded by a kassra vowel it should be spelled as ئ as in بِئْر ( a well).

By grasping this rule, you will never have to look up how to write hamza with a sukun vowel when preceded by a kassra vowel. 

6. Consider your audience.

One thing about the Arab culture is that formalities and hierarchy are important, and the use of Arabic language in communication mirrors that. Therefore, it is very important to consider your audience as you attempt to write a letter, an email or even a text message. 

If you are writing a formal letter or communique, you want to make sure you refer to the person you are addressing in the second person plural. Not only it shows that you respect the other party, but also demonstrates that you know enough about the culture to use the proper form.

You also want to use a bit of flowery and deferential style as you address government employees and highly placed people. 

For example, use  صاحب السعادة or جنابكم الموقر — which roughly translates to “Your respected excellency”  — in official communication with Arab recipients.

This may sound unreasonable, or even laughable, in your native language, but this is the right register to use in formal communication and official letters. 

The Arab culture ranks high in the Power Distance Index (PDI) , a measure used by some sociologists. This means that Arabs respect and accept the hierarchical order that is set in their societies. As a learner of Arabic, you may want to show that you understand that.

Similarly, if you are writing to someone with a PhD, you should address the person as Doctor So & So   (الدكتور); if you are writing to an engineer, you address him as Engineer So & So (المهندس). 

7. Write regularly and solicit feedback.

Long-term consistency beats short-term intensity. Bruce Lee

The ideal frequency of writing practice is to do a little bit everyday over a long period of time instead of intense irregular sessions. 

Three or four short writing sessions a week are more effective than a three-hour  session once a week.

Make sure you ask for feedback on your Arabic speaking proficiency from qualified individuals, such as your instructor, educated native speakers, and even supportive peers who are familiar with your learning track.

Asking for feedback also means that you should take it as an opportunity to develop and improve without dwelling on your shortcomings.

Proceed with caution though. What you need is constructive criticism that can help you improve your speaking. Avoid asking negative or unqualified individuals who may demotivate you.

8. Build a repertoire of useful verbs, descriptions, and conjunctions

You may find that you have a tendency to selectively pick your vocabulary based on what you find easy, difficult or cool or even fun to the ear.  

Although this is not a very bad habit, you want to make sure you are intentional in collecting  the vocabulary that will help with your conversational needs. 

Make an effort to be deliberate in picking up functional verbs, phrases, adjectives and linking words that will help you with telling a story, describing a person, comparing ideas or making a conclusion.

If you are lucky and have a good instructor,  you may participate in guided conversational sessions built around specific themes and situations in accordance with your speaking abilities and objectives. 

A good use of vocabulary will not only leave a positive impression on your interlocutors but will also show what kind of an Arabic learner you are.

9. Plan ahead and use and outline

For writing structure and planning, you can use the traditional writing methods. Start with general ideas and work your way into the small details. 

Jot down your main ideas and start with your subheadings first. This will help you remain organized and focused on your topic. 

Remember that language is just a tool to convey meanings and ideas. Once you establish an outline to organize your main points and subheadings, you start using your vocabulary and own style to translate the ideas into words. 

Since your purpose is to improve your written expression, don’t give too much attention to the ideas at the expense of form.

The whole point is to practice the grammar and spelling rules you have been learning to come up with a coherent and easy to follow essay.

10. Don’t be afraid of writing

Finally, enjoy your status as a foreign language student and write without fear or anxiety of being judged. Expectations from you as a language student are not as high as what’s expected of you in your native language. 

Be bold and borrow a thick skin if you don’t have one. Try to write using your own style while you maintain good grammar, spelling and proper form. 

You will of course make mistakes, but what’s the big deal? Mistakes create the best learning opportunities in learning Arabic or any foreign language. 

Just like in other languages, your writing will only become better with regular practice over time.

It’s a marathon, not a sprint.

Happy writing!

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AAEE – Automated evaluation of students’ essays in Arabic language

2019, Information Processing and Management

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david Mudou

The ability to communicate in natural language has long been considered a defining characteristic of human intelligence. Furthermore, we hold our ability to express ideas in writing as a pinnacle of this uniquely human language facility-it defies formulaic or algorithmic specification. So it comes as no surprise that attempts to devise computer programs that evaluate writing are often met with resounding skepticism. Nevertheless, automated writing-evaluation systems might provide precisely the platforms we need to elucidate many of the features that characterize good and bad writing, and many of the linguistic, cognitive, and other skills that underlie the human capacity for both reading and writing. Using computers to increase our understanding of the textual features and cognitive skills involved in creating and comprehending written text will have clear benefits. It will help us develop more effective instructional materials for improving reading, writing, and other human communication abilities. It will also help us develop more effective technologies , such as search engines and question-answering systems, for providing universal access to electronic information. A sketch of the brief history of automated writing-evaluation research and its future directions might lend some credence to this argument.

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Automated Essay Scoring (AES) is a service or software that can predictively grade essay based on a pre-trained computational model. It has gained a lot of research interest in educational institutions as it expedites the process and reduces the effort of human raters in grading the essays as close to humans' decisions. Despite the strong appeal, its implementation varies widely according to researchers' preferences. This critical review examines various AES development milestones specifically on different methodologies and attributes used in deriving essay scores. To generalize existing AES systems according to their constructs, we attempted to fit all of them into three frameworks which are content similarity, machine learning and hybrid. In addition, we presented and compared various common evaluation metrics in measuring the efficiency of AES and proposed Quadratic Weighted Kappa (QWK) as standard evaluation metric since it corrects the agreement purely by chance when estimate the degree of agreement between two raters. In conclusion, the paper proposes hybrid framework standard as the potential upcoming AES framework as it capable to aggregate both style and content to predict essay grades Thus, the main objective of this study is to discuss various critical issues pertaining to the current development of AES which yielded our recommendations on the future AES development.

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Essays are one of the most important method for assessing learning and intelligence of a student. Manual essay grading is a time consuming process for the evaluator, a solution to such problem is to make evaluation through computers. Many systems were proposed over past few decades. Each system works on different approach having focus on different attributes. Aim of this paper is to understand and analyze current essay grading systems and compare them primarily focusing on technique used, performance and focused attributes.

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Classroom Q&A

With larry ferlazzo.

In this EdWeek blog, an experiment in knowledge-gathering, Ferlazzo will address readers’ questions on classroom management, ELL instruction, lesson planning, and other issues facing teachers. Send your questions to [email protected]. Read more from this blog.

Supporting Arab & Muslim Students in the Classroom

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(This is the first post in a multipart series.)

The new question-of-the-week is:

What are important considerations that educators should keep in mind when teaching Arab and Muslim students?

Issues of race, culture, and ethnicity are critical for us educators to keep in the forefront of our minds.

And, when we think of who we’re teaching, the needs of Arab and Muslim students are perhaps not considered as much as they should be...

Today, series guest-editor Dr. Sawsan Jaber “kicks off” a multipart series responding to this question. Dr. Jaber, along with contributors Abeer Shinnawi and Dr. Nina Shoman-Dajani, also were guests on my 10-minute BAM! Radio Show . You can also find a list of, and links to, previous shows here.

Stories from the Front Lines: Experiences of Arab and Muslim Students in American Classrooms—Introduction

Dr. Sawsan Jaber, a global educator of 20 years in the U.S. and abroad, currently serves as a high school English teacher in Illinois. She is an Our Voice Academy board director, the founder of Education Unfiltered Consulting, and a founding member of the Arab American Education Network. Sawsan is a proud Palestinian American. You can find her on Twitter @SJEducate. Find Us: Twitter: @EducatorsArab Email: [email protected]:

According to recent research , there has been heightened anti-Muslim racism, also known as Islamophobia. This increase has resulted in many Arab American and Muslim American students in schools where they are not the majority feeling that they either want to mask their identity by assimilating or that they cannot learn because they are not socially accepted. Studies show that Arab American adolescents are victims of discrimination by their teachers and classmates. Focus groups with students have magnified Arab reports of their faith and culture being scrutinized and adversely viewed by students and teachers, resulting in feelings of defensiveness and demotivation.

The lack of understanding of students’ intersectionality and cultural identities leads to their disempowerment, limiting their access to an equitable educational experience in comparison with their white peers (Jaber, 2019). Research has highlighted that this is the plight of many students of color across the United States; however, research has also highlighted that Arab and Muslim students are more of a target of systematic oppression and inequality due to the current political climate, which began its shift after 9/11.

These facts magnify the need for collaboration and communication among stakeholder groups. An increase in communication between educators and parents would bring to light the burden being placed on students by educator and parent stakeholder groups to advocate for themselves by themselves at all times with no systematic support. Therefore, the need for all stakeholder groups to humanize their perceptions of each other and work past their epistemologies in order to collaborate for the sake of building community by empowering the students becomes essential.

That is where the mission of the Arab American Education Network (AAEN) was born. Representation and official advocacy for Arab students has always been overlooked even among educators doing equity work. Arab students are not recognized demographically on the census, and most Arab students are products of countries that are not democratic; therefore, self-advocacy is not a natural characteristic promoted culturally. The mission of the network is to gather Arab teachers from across the United States so that we can collaborate to amplify the voices of Arab and Muslim students and raise awareness through research, professional development, advocacy, and training on understanding the cultural and linguistic pluralism and diversity that exists within these subgroups. We hope to provide teachers with the tools and knowledge they need to better serve Arab students.

This article will be the first in a series of several articles addressing the central question, “What are important considerations that educators should keep in mind when teaching Arab students?” My colleagues and fellow founding members of this network, Dr. Nina Shoman-Dajani, Abeer Shinnawi, Sarah Said, and I will each answer this question for the first component of this series (appearing over two posts) based on our unique educational lens with different focuses. Subsequent columns will focus on dismantling common misconceptions about Arabs and on proactive actions educators can take to create more inclusive environments for Arab students.

We hope that through these articles we shed light on decades of marginalization for Arab students, the need for educators to disrupt and agitate the cycles, curriculum, and thought that has been normalized in their everyday work to create more equitable and inclusive spaces for all students including Arab students, and to provide educators and educational organizations with a resource to continue learning about Arabs and Arab American students through this network.

Defying ‘Single Story’ Representations in English and Language Arts Classrooms

Attempts of English teachers to be culturally responsive as I progressed through my educational career often led to teachers handing me texts that were supposed to be representations of my own experiences, “mirrors” in educational jargon today. Yet, I was never handed a text that strayed away from the racist anti-Islamic and anti-Arab normalizations represented in the media. The implications of my teachers not seeing me as anything more than a tangible example of media representations caused me to feel like an “outsider” throughout my school journey. Sadly, my experiences were not isolated incidents.

Critical Race Theory thought and research have highlighted the detrimental impacts of the lack of student empowerment and inclusivity in the educational sector; they further marginalize groups of color instead of legitimizing their experiences and stories. Ultimately, students who perceive to be “othered” in school share only what they need to survive their context. That translates to Arab and Muslim students sharing only what they discern to be similar and relative to the culture of their peers withdrawing when things like pronouncing their name correctly draws more attention to their pluralistic identities (Jaber, 2019). Without educators explicitly working to “ perpetuate and foster-to sustain linguistic, literate, and cultural pluralism as part of the democratic project of schooling and as a needed response to demographic and social change,” the price is the loss of democracy and of cultural identity for Arab American students.

Texts like The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseni and God Dies by the Nile by Nawal Saadawi are often hailed as examples of great texts to include if you are culturally responsive and have Arab and Muslim students in class. Although these texts may represent the lived experiences of the authors, they do not differentiate between the Arabic culture of the specific region versus the role of the religion. These omissions lead readers who do not know the difference between Arab and Muslim to further blur those lines and often view students through a stereotypical lens. Consequently, attempts to provide Arab students with mirrors to view themselves in the literature and other students with windows to learn about Arab and Muslim peers result in magnfying stereotypes, misconceptions, and feelings of alienation for the same students the texts were intended to empower.

As a parent of children with exposure to these texts in school, I found it challenging to navigate these texts with my children, empowering them to hold critical conversations with misinformed teachers who were perpetuating Arab and Muslim stereotypes. Students do not want the responsibility of teaching teachers and peers their own truths. Arab and Muslim adolescents developmentally just want to “belong” and feel included (Jaber, 2019). So, what happens to these students when this is the only representation?

Arab and Muslim students report sharing only parts of their identities that were considered the norm and were socially acceptable in school contexts (Jaber, 2019). This included their dress, language, lunch choices, holidays they celebrate, who they interact with, and general demeanor at home—a central “norm ” that others need to be brought into implying an outside appearance of inclusiveness that does not really exist. Although these characteristics would give the impression of harmony with peers and the environment, it does not actually exist since students are not able to share their cultural identities.

Students attribute their choice to “hold back” to two main reasons: They feel “other” school community members would not understand and they avoid the burden of constantly explaining and defending their identities. Both allude to a lack of safety and order required for students to gain the sense of belonging and inclusion they inherently yearn for indicated by their willingness to let go of integral aspects of their identity, disadvantaging them and limiting their gains.

Thanks to Dr. Jaber for her contribution!

Please feel free to leave a comment with your reactions to the topic or directly to anything that has been said in this post.

Consider contributing a question to be answered in a future post. You can send one to me at [email protected] . When you send it in, let me know if I can use your real name if it’s selected or if you’d prefer remaining anonymous and have a pseudonym in mind.

You can also contact me on Twitter at @Larryferlazzo .

Education Week has published a collection of posts from this blog, along with new material, in an e-book form. It’s titled Classroom Management Q&As: Expert Strategies for Teaching .

Just a reminder; you can subscribe and receive updates from this blog via email or RSS Reader. And if you missed any of the highlights from the first eight years of this blog, you can see a categorized list below. The list doesn’t include ones from this current year, but you can find those by clicking on the “answers” category found in the sidebar.

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Automated students arabic essay scoring using trained neural network by e-jaya optimization to support personalized system of instruction

• Published: 21 August 2020
• Volume 26 , pages 1165–1181, ( 2021 )

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• Marwa M. Gaheen 1 ,
• Rania M. ElEraky 2 , 3 &
• Ahmed A. Ewees 1  

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A personalized system of instruction is one of the strategies to personalize instruction. It is a technique that allows the student to move from one unit to another according to his own pace and his potential. Although this system is distinguished with activity and effectiveness to master the instructional subject, it lacks evaluation of the essay questions automatically. Automated essay scoring is the operation of scoring written essays by computer programs. It has been widely used in recent years. In this paper, a proposed method is presented to automatically grade students’ Arabic essays to support personalized systems of instruction. It uses the elitist-Jaya (e-Jaya) optimization algorithm to train the classic artificial neural network (called eJaya-NN). The proposed method is tested over 240 student’s essays. The essays are graded by two human experts in the fields then they are fed to a pre-processing phase to be converted to a digit’s matrix. The results are evaluated using different measures and it is compared with some optimization algorithms. The eJaya-NN outperformed all compared algorithms and achieved the best values. Its correlation with the scores of the human experts equals 0.92 which indicates that the proposed method produces acceptable scores for the Arabic essay compared to the human experts and can effectively increase the features of personalized systems of instruction.

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Department of Computer, Damietta University, Damietta, Egypt

Marwa M. Gaheen & Ahmed A. Ewees

University of Bisha, Bisha, 61922, Saudi Arabia

Rania M. ElEraky

Department of Curricula and Teaching Methods, Faculty of Specific Education, Damietta University, Damietta, Egypt

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Gaheen, M.M., ElEraky, R.M. & Ewees, A.A. Automated students arabic essay scoring using trained neural network by e-jaya optimization to support personalized system of instruction. Educ Inf Technol 26 , 1165–1181 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-020-10300-6

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Received : 15 May 2020

Accepted : 31 July 2020

Published : 21 August 2020

Issue Date : January 2021

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-020-10300-6

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