Cherry-Ann Carew

What exactly does a writing coach do?

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Before going into the intricacies of the coaching process, let’s take a look at the emergence of coaching itself.

Coaching grew from the world of sports. Coaches assist athletes to develop their overall skills, broaden their outlook on techniques, discipline, mind set and looking after their body to enhance performance.

Over the years, coaching slowly seeped into corporate organizations and has expanded rapidly. As such, coaching has become an effective tool in many areas. The two main types of coaching within organizations are: Personal coaching: The focus here is on personal development and short and long term goals, and Executive coaching: The focus is geared toward organizational and professional coaching.

Outside of the corporate world, coaching is an important element not only in sports and corporate, public organizations, but also in areas such as writing and along the scale of one-on-one personal coaching for the woman on the street who needs a little guidance to deal with everyday life.

So, let's get back to the question of exactly what is done during the coaching process.

Like therapy, coaching is confidential in nature, whether as a group or individual. Generally a set time is arranged over a period, sometimes as long as a year, if not more, depending on the level of coaching required. The main objective is the outcome or goal.

In this instance, the goal is to have an end product i.e. a book, thesis, resume or perhaps a poem or whatever the client is working on. He may need help with one, some or all of the following:

• Achieving a goal – identifying and gaining clarity
• Working on a specific skill – grammar and punctuation
• How to write an outline – building structure and plot outline
• Motivation – pumping yourself into writing mode
• Strategic planning – cultivating and redefining thought process, discipline, openness

These are merely a few areas that coaching can have significant bearing in progression. A Coach must guide you to focus on your goals by showing you how to develop or enhance your skills with cognitive preparation as people’s frames of references differ. A good Coach will show you where you went or are going wrong and help you to work it out yourself and follow up with explicit feedback. It is not the Coach’s remit to do the work for you, but to guide you in accelerated movements toward your goal for self empowerment.

Reverting to sports, Sir Alex Ferguson of Britain’s Manchester United FC is a prime example of what coaching can do to stimulate players to play their best. He has nurtured and coached the likes of David Beckham to become a world class player. For his coaching efforts, Sir Alex has a string of awards gained for his coaching abilities over the years.

© 2008 Cherry-Ann Carew

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