How can I help my 12 y.o. improve his writing in the next two months?

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My year 8 ds has hugely important exams coming up. He did not receive a solid writing foundation in earlier years. Now he is in class with 12 y.o.'s who read the Economist for fun. We have two months to improve his writing dramatically.

His main areas of weakness in his essay / expository writing:
i. Colloquial: “lots of stuff,” “things,” “the refugees move to where it’s safer.”
ii. Awkward: “People only are looking for somewhere to live.”
“There’s a high number of Indians living in the UK,”
iii. Incorrect word choice: In an essay in favor of zoos, he wrote that the “zoo animals are trapped in their cages.” I challenged him as to what made “confined” a milder word with a less negative connotation, and “enclosed” even more so, and “cared for” even more so.

Question 1: What are the fastest ways to help our son improve in the shortest amount of time?

Question 2: Looking for any online tools (especially interactive) where, for example, he is given three word choices to put in a given sentence and he has to also describe (or choose the right description for why that word is best in that sentence).

Are you sitting CE or a similar entrance exam?
What does his school think and more importantly what are they doing to help?
I suspect practice makes perfect, does he like writing many boys don't? Can you get him to talk about what's he's going to write, plan it and then write it? Can you or his teachers then go over it with him suggesting alternative words, how to reword it to make it sound less awkward, how about reading it our loud to himself? I'm a poor writer when I struggle to write something I read out loud what I've written.
Maybe he does feel zoo animals are "trapped" in their cages!!
I'm dyslexic and can't spell at all I frequently have to change the word I want to use for one I don't want to use because I can't spell the word I want and the spell checker doesn't recognise it!

With DS I used www.quill.org to focus his attention on proof reading. But I'm not sure that is exactly what you are looking for.

To hoik DS up to standard (English is his other native language and had taken a back seat for some years due to time constraints) I went over essay structure to make sure he was building up sentence and paragraphs from notes. It seemed to help him avoid "making it up as he went along" somewhat mindlessly. It took some of the pressure off and allowed him to focus more in terms of wording things better, with the correct register.

Then it was a case of almost every day getting him to write up a paragraph from the pre planned essay notes. And walking him through where I'd highlighted (colour coded, so diff. highlighters for grammar, vocab, clunkyiness syntax etc.) to get him to correct.

Over the years I've tried so many tools and packages, interactive and not so much. Quill was really useful in some respects, but only went so far. The only thing that worked all round in the end was me sitting next to him and investing as much energy into reaching the desired (mainly by me) objective as he was.

Got there in the end but it was a real slog. I think the pay off is that at the end of all that hands on effort, blood, sweat, tears and ignoring the whinging, he's finally able to write well independently. So maybe it is a case of pay now, get the free time later for some parent/kid combinations ?

happygardening, FogBound--
Thanks for your thoughtful responses. We have been doing the "slog", and I agree that it is truly the best way for the long haul: "Investing" is exactly the right term for it. I have no doubt that over the course of a year or two, ds will be writing very well, independently and with excellent content, too. Because of this time pressure we're under, though, we are looking for intense, efficient and independent means of practice and instruction. Quill.org actually looks like a great site, and I'm going to give it a go with ds.

www.tripticoplus.com/media/temp/slowWriting.html www.learningspy.co.uk/featured/slow-writing-ebook-contributions-wanted/

It's not just about writing, it's his command of the language. Sorry to have to say this, but he will not write grammatically correct English with a good vocabulary unless he speaks in the same way.

Tell us a bit more about your son: has he just changed school, or have his mates suddenly taken up the Economist? When did you first realise there might be an issue with his writing?

Do you have plenty of time and opportunity to focus on this with him, and to keep talking to him and he to talk to you?

Are you around from the time he gets home until he goes to school the next day? How receptive is he? (no siblings to distract either of you?)

If not, a tutor might be best, if you can find one at this late stage. Online tools might not be taken seriously unless you stand over him. Really bearing down on him now, with an activity he perceives as being no fun isn't going to help your relationship.

He's clearly capable of producing colloquial material, but needs to focus in every possible way on more formal writing. See it, hear it and do it.