As some of you might know, I tutor English to 2 students and 1 of them is struggling with English although her spoken English is pretty good.  There seems to be a huge disparity between her spoken and written English, and this has affected her self-confidence before I tutored her as she was failing the Singapore MOE exams when she's getting A's in her current school.  So what's the problem?

Students shouldn't be told to write simple stories just so as to make less grammatical or spelling errors! It is only when they make said errors will they then learn.  Scoring in a composition is simple - have a good storyline! There must be an intro, climax in the body and then finally (haha, ignore the pun) a good conclusion that sums up what the whole story is about, unless you want a dramatic ending.

A good storyline can bring you far.  Look at the whole 'Twilight' series and 'Fifty Shades of Grey'.  They're not the best examples of literary greatness but they sell really well because the story-lines are compelling enough to make you want to continue reading till the end.  So, if you're not doing well in your composition, do not fear...just open your creative mind (helps if you read a lot too) and just write, write, write and write.