Incompetence In Literature Is On The Rise In Today’S Society.

Poor writing skills have become a major problem in corporate America. Many of today's employers say that good writing skills are essential not only for existing employees but also for new hires (Simkin, Crews, & Groves, 2012). In a survey of 120 U.S. Corporations, nearly a third of all employees have poor writing skills. Who is to blame for the lack of writing skills of Americans today?

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

This essay proves that graduating students in Ontario should only study literature in a Grade 12 English course. While good writers exist in all cultures, Ontario students should only study literature written by Canadian writers. This is because all Ontario students should become familiar with literature from our province. Three reasons for this are; the need to focus on our own Canadian culture and despite being surrounded by many other cultures, the need to promote and establish our own writers is there, as well as the need to encourage younger Canadian authors.

1. At the beginning of the essay Merrill seems to be a bit bashful about poor writing. But Merrill also uses “Poor” and “Principle” in his title “The Principle of Poor Writing.” This irony shows that it can be a negative or positive. Another example of Merrill using irony can be found on page 428 “Many scientists actually do write poorly, but they probably perform by ear without perceiving clearly how their results are achieved.” Merrill’s title, introduction or advice did not tip me off because many people in today’s society do struggle with writing.

In the paper “Inventing the University” by David Bartholomae, he shows the mistakes that basic writers make in college. It shows us what writers are lacking in writing effectively for an academic community. He compares and contrasts the differences between a mater writer and a basic writer. It shows how an expert writer keeps the audience in mind and a struggling writer does not. Bartholomae says that writers in college need to learn to “invent the university” which means they adapt their writing to writing and speak the ideas of an academic setting. Some students may find it hard to develop these new ways of writing and speaking in an academic setting. One way a master writer and a basis writer is different is

The Article “A Stranger in Strange Lands” written by Lucille P. McCarthy is an examination of the writing process. This article follows a college student through a twenty-one month study to determine how the students writing ability is affected as he transitions from one classroom to another. Focusing on specific writing processes in different types of classrooms,this article hopes to uncover the importance and effect of writing towards a specific audience within a particular genre and to offer a better understanding to how students continue to learn to write throughout college.

“Some people say I was lucky to survive, other will say I deserved it for the choice I made. I’m here to say I was lucky, it’s never ok to say your life isn’t worth living even at your worst you can always look forward tomorrow will come and if you put your mind to it you’ll see that anything is possible.” – Stephen McGregor Professional Paralympian

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.

My English Literature major has helped me to achieve an outstanding level of appreciation, enjoyment, and knowledge of both American and British Literature. As a high school AP English student, I struggled through great works like Hamlet and To the Lighthouse. My teacher’s daily lectures (there was no such thing as class discussion) taught me merely to interpret the works as critics had in the past. I did not enjoy the reading or writing process. As a freshman at Loras, I was enrolled in the Critical Writing: Poetry class. For the first time since grade school, my writing ability was praised and the sharing of my ideas was encouraged by an enthusiastic and nurturing professor. Despite the difficulty of poetry, I enjoyed reading it.

“English 99 ” - an essay by Frank Gannon, illustrates the experiences of teaching a college class on introductory writing. Gannon, the english professor, displays the characteristics of an amoral man: lacking moral sensibility (distinguishing what is right and wrong) which may cause consequences to himself or others. With a person like Gannon, one cannot expect much from his teaching methods. Gannon represents an adult whose amorality created the lack of professional responsibility and dependability for his students, resulting in him being an ineffective mentor.

Richard E. Miller, the author of The Dark Night of the Soul, is an English professor/executive director of the Plan-genre Writing Center at Rutgers University. He studies the English curriculum in the U.S and questions if it is successful or a dying art. This is evident in The Dark night of the Soul,

In literary education, from childhood to maturity, individuals are taught how to write not to improve themselves as critical thinkers, but to fulfill the requirements given to them in a prompt. Whether to analyze or argue, this form of writing has led to a cease of literary improvement in students today, making many question the effectiveness of writing classes. Mike Bunns, in his article “To Read like a Writer”, explores this topic and stresses the necessity for young readers to critically examine the author’s choices in order to improve their own pieces of work. Bunns effectively argues to his audience of college students that improved comprehension comes from focusing on the rhetorical choices authors decide to make in their compositions by tying personal narratives with repetitive questioning throughout his article.

Employers and educators realize the importance of good writing skills but many business employees have writing deficiencies, costing American businesses billions of dollars every year. According to a study conducted by the National Commission on Writing (NCW) in 2004, American businesses may spend close to $3.1 billion yearly on the remediation of employees’ writing deficiencies. Consequently, employers are dissatisfied with employees writing skills and even more disappointed in the skills of new college graduates.

Here we define academic ghostwriting as work written for a student by somebody else, where the

Hypertextual fiction (hyperfiction) and other hypertext applications are making their way into the literature courses where, Professor Larry Friedlander says, “learning has basically meant the study of texts,” in the form of the “printed word” (257). And these newer works, inseparable from their contemporary technologies, offer the possibility of a very different type of literary study than the one most English majors experience in traditional literature courses. Print and book technology perpetuate and validate linear experience, thought, and narratives, which buttresses a hierarchical educational structure that shapes the roles of writers, readers, teachers, and students. Challenging our trust in the