In Downs and Wardle’s article, they argue and identify the flaws in teaching writing in college. Demonstrating the misconceptions that academic writing is universal, but rather specialized in each case. Citing studies and opinions from esteemed professionals, Downs & Wardle state their points and illuminate the problem in today’s many colleges.
Writing is a tool that is universally known and used as a primary source of communication. It is a process that is taught, practiced, and perfected throughout the course of one’s life. The process of learning to write begins in your early school years and continues to develop all the way through high school, college, and even beyond college. However, once you get to college writing tends to become a little bit more challenging and is typically more articulate. Writing can help you gain more knowledge and also help you to explore and discover new ideas. In terms of college writing, it is the process of being able to express your thoughts and ideas in an intellectual and effective way.
According to Runciman, there are many plausible reasons that students and other people don’t enjoy writing. Evidence, assumptions, and language and tone are the basis for which Runciman makes his argument. Overall, this argument is effective because reliable and well known sources are used in a logical fashion. Also, the assumptions made about the audience are accurate and believable. Runciman used his assumptions wisely when writing his claim and in turn created a compelling, attention capturing argument. The article was written so that students and teachers at any level could understand and easily read it. This argument is interesting, captivating, relevant through its age, and can relate to students and teachers at almost every academic level.
In high school, writing essays was my weakest link. When I began my first semester of college, I still had that trouble in my first writing composition class. I improved significantly from gaining organization and length. When I started my second writing composition class, my grades for my paper sky rocketed! The essays I have written though out this semester have shown improvements in context and organizations, however, I still have some room for improvement on reasoning’s and thesis statement.
College writing professors teach writing in a variety of ways around the United States and the world. The reason for this is that some professors are trying to teach their students a different aspect of writing an essay or a paper. Two views on this particular subject that I found interesting were Maxine Hairston’s essay "Diversity, Ideology, and Teaching Writing" and also Thomas Bray’s newspaper article "Memorial Day and Multiculturalism". These essays are two totally different views on how diversity and multiculturalism is to be applied in America or taught in the college writing classroom.
After reading the “College Writing” article, I can compare myself to that article because the article actually tells me what my college professors expect me to do when I reach into that level. I feel like everything I learned from my previous classes and what I did in those previous classes had nothing to do with what college professors require me to do. For example, in the “College Writing” article it said, “The five paragraph theme is a good way to learn how to write an academic essay.” I realized that in college we go beyond the academic essay, so why am I still being taught the five paragraph essay? Shouldn’t we be prepared for the college five page, six page or even seven page essays? If the article tells me exactly why the five paragraph essay is not a good method to be used, than why am I still being taught to write a five paragraph essay? When it comes to writing, I wish I can just run away from it, because writing has been my least favorite thing to do.
Is college writing painful and hard to come up with good ideas? English writing is different than other languages, we must follow a series of rules to complete an assignment. First, we need to understand the basics in grammar in order to use them properly in our writing assignments. If we excel in grammar, our essay will be much more lucid and logical to read than it was originally. Writing is a skill that must be mastered through practice; thus, one cannot be proficient at it if he or she does not have enough practice. Despite how hard it is for me to formulate ideas for my essay, every time I sit and concentrate on writing, a multitude of ideas begin to flood my brain. I do not have a tremendous amount of experience in writing because in my country we do not write as much as students do in the United States due to a heavier emphasis on mathematical courses verses English literature. However, what I have come to learn is that writing plays an important role in achieving success in the academic life of a college student.
College writing should not be characterized by a level of skill that college students are expected to be able to do. People should not categorize a student’s writing skill based on an individual’s grade level, and one should not just claim that college level writing is a skill that can only be done by “college students,” because each individual’s skill differs from one another. Students, regardless of their grade level, have just the same and perhaps more potential to be a better writer. There are many different views as to what college level writing is defined as, and I believe it depends on the individual’s ability an...
In essentially all areas of academics, college students benefit greatly by learning how to write competently. At school, successful writing does not just benefit students inside of the english classroom. According to Marquette University, “Writing is the primary basis upon which your work, your
This article is written by Lenin Irvin, who presents the challenges that students have to face when they are required to write academic writing tasks in college and introduces to students to what Academic writing is like. To start off the article introduces "Myths about writing". These myths are misconceptions that students tend to use as rules for a perfect writing. However these don’t just not help, but also lead them to failure. The author also states a crucial step which is developing the “writer sense” .This “writer sense” refers to the awareness of the writing situation in general. In a writing piece a student should see the difference between speaking and writing the article and use the correct punctuation and choice the appropriated
This semester was my very first semester as a college student. Being the first, it was probably the semester I would learn the most in. I learned the expectations for writing that I will have to live up to for the next four years of my college career. Though my high school teachers were usually demanding because I was in the Honors English section throughout high school, writing in college has still ?raised the bar? for me. Also, in high school, we would have weeks to pick a topic, create a thesis, outline the paper, write the paper, and then revise the paper. In college, the time restraints are not quite as lenient. I?ve had to learn to manage my time and be more productive with what free moments I have. Strangely enough, I?ve found the college English experience to be much more rewarding and enjoyable than in high school.
Writing is an important part of everyone’s life, whether we use it in school, in the workplace, as a hobby or in personal communication. It is important to have this skill because it helps us as writers to express feelings and thoughts to other people in a reasonably permanent form. Formal writing forms like essays, research papers, and articles stimulates critically thinking. This helps the writer to learn how to interpret the world around him/her in a meaningful way. In college, professors motivate students to write in a formal, coherent manner, without losing their own voice in the process. Improving your writing skills is important, in every English class that’s the main teaching point; to help students improve their writing skills. Throughout my college experience I have acknowledge that
My first impression of college English was writing, writing and even more writing. Boy, was it true. I was afraid of going to college, especially afraid to take college English. This is my first semester in college and I knew I was taking a risk by enrolling into the online version of college English. My college advisor advised me of how intensive the workload is compared to the class done in the classroom. Nevertheless, I put on my big girl pants and enrolled. Though the class was tough, I learned so much than I thought was possible. I learned the importance of writing and I feel if I continue to work on my writing skills, it will make me a better writer in the future.
Although adequate writing skills are indispensable for life, leisure, and employment, quite a few students do not learn how to write effectively. Since writing is an exercise in thinking, it is important to balance the process of writing with the mechanics of writing. The areas of the brain involved in the writing task are varied yet interrelated; therefore, a student’s individual needs will determine the method of instruction they receive. Many students who have low expectations for their own academic success will not make even minimal efforts to complete a...
Crème, P., & Lea, Mary R. (2008). [PDF format]. Writing at University (3rd edition.), McGraw Hill Education. Retrieved from www.kantakji.com/fiqh/Research/ti134.pdf.