Grammarian PRO2 X

The real world’s standards are constantly evolving, growing ever more demanding on the public education system, yet despite this the primary indicator used for the success of the public education system is the high school graduation rate. The high school graduation rate is a deeply flawed statistic conceived many decades ago and hasn’t changed at all, failing to encompass better and broader definitions for public education system success. However, the focus on critical writing skills at New Dorp High School had the effect of dramatically increasing the school’s graduation rate from 63 percent before the “writing revolution” to 80 percent (Tyre). At face value the increase is a tremendous success, but just because a student can graduation high school does not mean they have the technical skills to prepare them for college or the workforce. A list of the fastest growing occupations in the United States provided by the Bureau of Labor Statistics mostly includes jobs from the medical field or occupations that require

In Dan Berrett’s article, “Students Come to College Thinking They’ve Mastered Writing,” the idea of freshman thinking they are or must be a refined writer is discussed. Students may think this way coming into college, but their teachers do not. While students might feel satisfied and think that they are prepared with their writing skills, professors found that these students did not necessarily meet the expected level (Berrett 1). Many students reported that they would normally write around 25 hours every week. They said that most of those hours of writing was for more formal purposes like passages to make changes in society (Berrett 1). It was found that one reason the new students might feel this way is that their assumptions about writing differed greatly from those of faculty members and their expectations. One big thing that students will not get for a while, is that good writing is not just listed as a bunch of steps one is to follow that automatically make one’s writing good. Good writing requires one to be in different mental states; it requires the understanding of how to write for different audiences and different reasons (Berrett 2). Berrett includes in the article that writing is not just universal and that in order to do very well, writers must use different forms of writing specifically for their purpose (2). It seems as though students think that, before they even take a class, they are supposed to know everything about writing; in reality, they are supposed to learn new skills and enhance others (Berrett 2). Berrett says that many believe the schools these students previously attended with their test focus might cause these feelings about writing (2). Berrett ends his article by saying that students these days do not think that informal writing actually counts as writing, and that students should practice writing for informal purposes because it can help them (2). Even if they feel like it, students are not fully prepared to write in all contexts when they arrive at college.

When you start to think about it, quickly you realize that almost everything we do in life has some sort of writing around it. Whether it be sending a simple text message or writing a long essay we all have to have the common foundation of how to write. As students progress their way through high school we are often pounded with the rules of writing. By the time you get to be a upperclassman you quickly learn that your days of learning how to write are not over once you get to college. As someone who is looking to study Aeronautics at Liberty University, still, the days of learning to write are far from over. Because Liberty University requires students to participate in two writing based classes my skills will continue to be developed. Even

In Peg Tyre’s article, The Writing Evolution, he addresses how some students struggled with writing in schools and how more time needed to be spent on teaching the proper aspects of writing. In his article, Tyre mentions a specific high school that took large measures to figure out why their students were doing so poorly on english and writing exams. This particular high school, New Dorp, made a writing revolution in which they placed an intense focus across nearly every academic subject, teaching the skills that underlie good analytical writing (Tyre 4). They received extraordinary results. Pass rates for the English Regents, for example, bounced from 67 percent in June 2009 to 89 percent in 2011 (Tyre 4). The number of kids enrolling in a program that allowed them to take college-level classes shot up from 148 students in 2006 to 412 students in 2011 (Tyre 4).

The nature of writing has changed in the past century. While writing still remains a form of visual communication, much of this change has been a result of technological advancements such as, from pen to paper or from a typewriter to a networked computer. The changes and expansion in the ways we are able to write today have brought about changes in writing pedagogy as well. The teaching of writing has been part of formal schooling in the United States for over 200 years (Kean 7). One major pedagogic change in United States’ education has to do with the implementation of the Common Core State Standards. These standards have led to a change in the instruction of writing in schools. This paper, will focus on instructional changes of writing over time and current expectations for writing abilities as whole.

Prince does not trust the SAT especially the writing portion, as a college diagnostic and believes we should ignore it in general. I agree with this because Prince shows that even the manufacturer of this test says there is not much different as the one without writing. This test should not even be a factor of getting into college as it only has the capability to measure fifty three percent

A century of practices are now being questioned by many American educators and students; a century of scores once thought reliable have become a highly criticized topic. In recent years, the College Board has been questioned and criticized for its unfair grading practices. This is mainly due to the overuse of technology, inexperience of graders, and wrongful evaluation of papers; therefore, I do not believe the writing portion of a standardized test can be fairly nor accurately scored.

An Open Letter to Ninth Graders explains what skills are needed for college. These skills include: reading, writing, listening, grit and attitude. The author thoroughly explains how each of these skills are vital to a student’s college readiness. In addition, he also gives a few examples of how the lack of these abilities can affect the student’s college life. The author also encourages the strengthening and polishing of these skills throughout the next four years of a student’s high school life. In other words, you need to work hard on just these skills in order to be ready for college. The general argument of this author is that all you need to worry about when you go to college, is your college readiness and the commitment of this step

Jordan A. Booker and Julie C. Dunsmore wanted to see if two certain types of writing would help incoming undergraduates at a southeastern university with their transition to college. To do this, they conducted a study over the course of two years during the fall 2013 and fall 2014 semesters. One hundred sixty-one participants were recruited through use of classroom announcements, email announcements, and building flyers. The fall 2013 semester contained 101 participants while the fall 2014 semester contained 60 participants. It is important to note the demographics of this study as 69.6% of the participants were female while 30.4% were male, and 77.6% were white or European American while 22.4% consisted of other ethnicities.

When asked to what extent I believe I am prepared for college-level writing, I would respond with “not very prepared.” I would like to think that I could take on any assignment given to me and meet all the written requirements, but I also know that I haven't had a helpful writing class since 11th grade. Even with my previous knowledge and writing skills I struggled throughout high school with most of my assignments. I definitely don’t feel as prepared as I should be.

Writing ability, the capacity to generate and organize relevant ideas, compose coherent sentences, choose precise diction and control mechanics, can have far-reaching effects on a college graduate’s future.

This research aims to explain why students do not pose college-level writing skills. A variety of explanations are listed and two hypotheses are made and investigated by the researchers. The first one is that students are not aware of the importance of writing well to their future careers, and the second one is that they believe they have already had higher than average writing skills when they are actually not. However, there are some flaws exist in the survey they used.

Muriel Hall (1995), Founder and Director of the Purdue is Writing Lab, argues that writing center are not only integral to student success, but are also important to maintain retention (27). Texas A&M is one of the largest universities with high student population, and there are many students, especially freshmen’s and sophomores who struggle with their classes and seek for resources that help them with their academic struggles. UWC and ASC are two of the university initiatives that address the students’ need to help them with their classes and enhance their academic performance.

Writing takes up a significant portion of high school English classes. However, it is often the same research papers and personal narratives that students have written since the sixth grade. While it is beneficial to students to write these types of pieces, once they hit high school it becomes increasingly important for them to learn not only how to create stories but how to communicate in the professional world. In high school, students begin to entertain ideas about what career path they will choose, and to pursue internships and other opportunities related to the fields they find interesting.

To begin a discussion about teaching college writing in a digital era we must first understand what this era represents. It is an age when many people choose to "watch" books instead of read them, in the form of television programs or motion pictures. It is a time when product advertisements, "news" reports and controlled communications attempt to do the world's thinking for them and when computers-if given enough information on a subject-can compose a written report suitable for any university course. With the availability of these alternatives to reading, thinking and writing, it is a wonder that there is still a college writing requirement at all. Nevertheless, almost every college and university in