Many new university students encounter many social and academic challenges throughout their first year. These academic challenges can be in the form of adapting to new writing styles and the standard it needs to be in, critical thinking and so many more. As well as social challenges such as transitioning into a new culture and maintaining work life balance. This argumentative essay will focus on some of these social and academic challenges as well as looking at strategies that students can use to overcome them. This piece will mainly focus on academic reading, writing styles and use of conventions and discourse, as well as social transition and how it affects students living at home, on campus and the importance of balance.
Commencing students
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(1997). In Strating & Earl, 2015, p. 57). In the same way, students are also in control of what information is used in note taking and assignment work. Students must be able to establish a ‘purpose for reading’, such as identifying the main headings, summaries and more; this is known as ‘skim’ reading (Scevak, 2007). This is a very significant challenge to all first years because finding the relevant information in a text enables a student’s understanding of weekly topics and hence can demonstrate this knowledge into assignment work (Nel, C. & Nel, C. (2009). In Holm, A. & Earl, C. (2015). First year students encounter other academic challenges throughout their subjects and set …show more content…
Osmond (2013) recognizes comma splicing as one of the most common mistakes students make in their writing, Osmond reminds students that too many commas can render a piece unreadable. Holm and Earl (2015) make reference to the importance of transition subjects, the need for explicit instruction for effective orientation with university standards can assist in getting better marks in assessments. The need for explicit orientation relies heavily on the university itself; universities in the past assumed students to know these techniques for efficient assessment writing. But as Kift (2014) argues, universities need to make student transition a top
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 this article written by David Bartholomae, the author discusses problems basic writers make and about how they must use the discourse (communication style) of the academic community they are writing to, to be an effective writer. Bartholomae believes that “Inventing the University," is being able to assemble and mimic the universities language(5). Which means, if a student wants to be an efficient writer, he or she must be able to speak the language of his or her audience. Bartholomae writes that a common mistake of basic writers is that they don’t use an authoritative voice, and tend to switch into a more passive voice. This could be due to the fact that students have difficulty establishing their mindset or attitude for an audience
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.
In Patricia Limerick’s article “Dancing with Professors”, she argues the problems that college students must face in the present regarding writing. Essays are daunting to most college students, and given the typical lengths of college papers, students are not motivated to write the assigned essays. One of the major arguments in Limerick’s article is how “It is, in truth, difficult to persuade students to write well when they find so few good examples in their assigned reading.” To college students, this argument is true with most of their ...
Murray, Charles. “Are Too Many People Going to College?” They Say/I Say: The Moves That Matter In Academic Writing. Ed. Gerald Graff. 2nd ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2012. 222-242. Print.
When having an education, people grow and expand their knowledge. By expanding and gaining knowledge from the experience of college, people are able to become independent learners. However, most people tend to start evolving into independent learners after leaving high school; from leaving high school, I started to evolve into an independent learner. Setting goals for yourself creates individual growth. In the article, “Why we are looking at the ‘value’ of college all wrong” by Valerie Strauss, Nelson discusses how an independent learner is able to teach themselves and learn from the challenges they tend to face.
The fostering of independent thought is sometimes forgone in today's educational system. At times, students are encouraged to just complete their assignment instead of thinking about what they are doing so that they may fully understand their...
When one enters a new academic discourse community, they experience a rite of passage, a coming-of-age passage. The rite of passage is the process of the individual’s detachment from their former community, preparation for this new phase of life, and the reappearance into society except with a new status. In this case, the new status is student of higher learning. In any case, the rite of
Graff, G., Birkenstein, C., & Durst, R. K. (2009). The Growing College Gap. "They say/I say": the moves that matter in academic writing : with readings (p. 379). New York: W.W. Norton & Co.
One of the first and most common problems most, if not all international students face when they first arrive in the UK for study is culture shock. culture shock is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary(2014) as the feeling of disorientation experienced by someone when they are suddenly subjected to an unfamiliar culture, way of life, or set of attitudes. When students first move to the UK they observe and experience several things for the first time and it tends to overwhelm them. New international students often find themselves feeling powerless and unimportant which often forces them into self-isolation(Bailey, 2005). The culture shock also tends to result in the students being unable to make friends in their new community because they are unsure of what is customary and regarded in good light (Bailey, 2005).
I have learned many things throughout the course of the term, including such things as: how to write an essay and how to improve on essays that I have already written, how to locate and composite better research through the use of numerous resources found at the campus library, the internet, and the “Common Sense” textbook, how to cite research, examples, and quotations properly within the contents of my research paper as well as document it accurately according to MLA standards. Through the exploration of the “Subjects and Strategies” textbook, I have learned nine different methods used when writing an effective essay and how the different writing styles affect the overall theme and tone of the essay when used properly. This past semester, I have encountered many difficulties when trying to write these essays, but through the use of the textbooks, the aide of the instructor, and once I was able to classify the different types of essays and styles, I found them possible to overcome.
During the course of this semester; the variety of writing styles and essays assigned to me in my communication skills class encouraged the development of my writing skills, as well as provided me with more self-assurance in my abilities. My writing, research, and presentation abilities enhanced through practice, determination, and the understanding I gained during this course. With every single writing assignment, I learned new innovative approaches and skills, which enhanced my abilities to improve my thoughts logically, enabling me to write more clearly, and to organize my papers more effectively. At the beginning of this semester; despite the fact that I already knew the terminology MAP: message, audience, purpose; I never really understood the significance of MAP. For this reason, my writing lacked clarity, organization, and my writings appeared less focused on the topics. As a result my research papers and essays did not flow as smoothly from one passage to the next. Furthermore, I was unaccustomed with the precise procedures used when writing an essay. For instance, my previous classes before college, although requiring a reference page, did not require me to include proper citations in my writings. After evaluating the quality of my writing toward the end of the semester, I recognized vast improvements in several areas of my writing. By concentrating on the beginning stages of my writings, I could distinguish ahead of time my audience and my message. As a result, my essays are clear, and I remain on topic. In addition to that using transition phrases efficiently also helps my writing to flow smoothly. The proper use of transitions makes my writings easy to follow from one topic to the next. I also learned that pre-writing...
Social Media has become a very essential tool in the society; in addition, it has a huge impact on communication and learning process. Social media is defined as websites and applications used for social networking. “As of September 2013, seventy-one percent of online adult use Facebook, eighteen percent use Twitter and seventeen percent use Instagram, twenty-two percent use PInterest, and another twenty-two percent use LinkedIn. (PewReasearch, 2013). In addition, "Between February 2005 and August 2006, the use of social networking sites among young adult internet user ages eighteen and twenty-nine jumped from nine percent to forty-nine percent. The usage of social media had grown drastically.” On social media sites like these, users may develop biographical profiles, communicate with friends and strangers, do research, and share thoughts, photos, music, links, and more” (Socialnetworking.procon,2012). Social media has impacted everyone in several different ways. In this present time, majority of college student use Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Social media has a bold impact college student's grades, social interactions, and the teaching and learning process.
Academic writing skill is very essential for the college students. Through academic writing, the students can express their thoughts, feelings and point of view on a certain issue or topic. In presenting ideas about variety of issues, students need to follow certain rules in writing academic essays. Academic writing is a specific type of writing that is needed in writing formal essays in a certain course. To create a well-constructed essay, it is very important for the students to use academic writing style. It has specific features which include academic tone in the essays. To achieve formality of tone, students must maintain the objectivity of their written texts. Unfortunately, some of the students tend to use personal pronouns
One of the most essential ingredients to an effective instructional environment is the initiative of the student. For the traditional undergraduate college student, this is one of the areas in which most problems exist [2]. The ‘traditional’ undergraduate college student should be construed as an average male and female between the ages of 18 and 22 who is at a transitional phase in life and learning to deal with independence.