The Importance Of Student Writing

While writing might seem like a simple task, it can be a daunting task for a lot of people. Sometimes it can be hard to express the ideas in your mind in the words of a paper. This results in a disconnect with what a writer may actually think. A great writer is one that can transform his thoughts into words perfectly. This is a craft that takes many years to perfect, which is why writing is troublesome for a lot of us. Many students also have had bad experiences with writing. Maybe they had a teacher that didn’t try to support them and their writing. They might not have ever gotten the help they needed and may feel that they are in a hole where their writing can’t get better. At this point, they just accept that their writing will never get better.

In Dan Berrett’s article “Students Come to College Thinking They’ve Mastered Writing”, published in the Chronicle of Higher Education on March 21, 2014, the author describes some issues regarding writing that first-year students face. Berrett claims that “the students’ notions about writing” do not meet their instructors’ expectations. I, as a freshman in university, agree with most of the author’s ideas. However, there are flaws in the article, which make it less convincing.

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.

I feel like most teachers worry more about grades and getting the writing done as soon as possible and not taking their time in helping students gain better writing skills and improve themselves. Students should be able to choose what they want to write about so that we can feel inspired in our writings thus having a better end product for teachers to read and be satisfied with. If teachers are constantly criticizing our writings and telling us what to write about then they never really know what a student’s potential really is because most likely they will rush to try to satisfy the teachers needs than theirs. I also agree that teachers should worry more about a person’s writing than about the mechanics of a paper, however; I also realize that in today’s society free writing isn’t really “approved” in almost every class. In every English class I have had my teachers focused more about the end result that is timing us on essays, and grading our papers based off grammar/mechanics and not the process writing

Students are subjected to write an array of essays, but they lack the required tools needed to effectively deliver a great paper. They are struggling to write and teachers are needing to design and conform to their current student’s needs. New methods are created and implemented in order to execute the daunting task of learning how to write a well-developed paper. Practical recommendations are brought forth for teachers to use and good teachers will learn to design instruction and activities based on suitable references. Teachers must set goals and deliver their lesson with specific strategies to meet their objectives. They must learn to improve skills dramatically by observing and modifying the students. Teachers must plan strategies in order to help the struggling students catch up or exceed in their writing skills. They must learn to motivate their students by keeping them engaged throughout the writing process if not they risk losing the student’s ability and focus to do better.

Writing is an essential tool and has been noted as a precursor for great speaking by teachers at all grade levels. However, with writing being an important aspect throughout one’s academic career and beyond, it is one of the most tedious tasks to teach. It sounds like a cliché, but in order to get better at something, one has to keep completing the task and each time, accomplish something different while maintaining prior knowledge. There are various ways that enhance a student’s writing abilities and the focus of these research strategies will prove that encouraging students to write enhances writing.

The importance of college-level writing is a topic that is very much backed up and accompanied by facts and studies. Writing in the college-level is needed in order to master college work in any class. Basically all classes require you to more than likely submit some kind of research paper or essay. Writing for Learning to Improve Students’ Comprehension at the College Level by Fahad Alharbi as well as Luiza Costa Ribeiro, Writing Essays at College: Why it’s Important both go into detail on how important writing at this level is and all the skills learned for during and after college. As well on how you can benefit from them.

In this article, “College Success” written by Bruce Beiderwell, Linda Tse, Thomas J. Lochhaas, and Nicholas B. deKanter, they explain the differences of high school and college writing, expectations of the instructors, and the types of papers that are assigned. Most students who struggle in their writing are usually still going through their transformation into college, without even knowing it. Though, how can you see these symptoms? “Students who struggle with writing in college often conclude that their high school teachers were too easy or that their college instructors are too hard” (Beiderwell, P. 1). When going into college there are all sort of ways of writing an essay, in high school you were taught the five paragraph basic

In today’s workforce, jobs are heavily based upon the skills that one has and how well one can perform them in their field of study. A major component skill that lacks in many young people today is writing. Writing plays is an important role in life, one needs it to communicate with other people. If young people are not taught this in their years of schooling and do not learn to master it, consequently they will come out on the bottom with poor writing skills. Which in

The intro to chapter 9 in Cunningham & Allington(p.150) made me chuckle a bit, as I have many times asked that especially to my youngest son who “strongly disliked” writing up all the way through 8th grade. And he was not that amused over my question. I do believe that he was mostly thinking about how he could get out of the writing task altogether more than what to write. Fortunately now, a changed student, as a freshman in High School his attitude towards writing has greatly improved. I can only imagine how many other students are facing the same frustrations, and how inventive teachers have to be to encourage all students to write.

From personal experience, I used to be an average writer in high school but during my senior when I took college English, the quality of my writing increased because of more strict guidelines and expectations which in return gave me the ability to improve and learn from mistakes. As matter of fact, if my teacher didn’t point the mistakes out and made me redo it, I wouldn’t have improved and had better quality writing experience or somewhat college-level writing. As can be seen, some individuals might not have quality writing skills as they were not exposed to the level of writing they need to obtain before coming to college which makes them lower than average. In essence,, this could because of many factors such as institutional or family

First, the writing class helps one on tests. From SATs to finals, writing is needed. If one is not strong in writing, they miss a huge part of their tests. Even though the student may know the right answers, if they can’t write well, there is no point. It's like listening to two same age high school students speak against each other. However, they both are speaking about the same topic. Whoevers voice, explanation and stance is better would win more approval. The same thing applies when it comes to tests. The better written, the more likely a teacher

Michael’s understanding of this genre is very clear. He wires his statements in complete sentences and with a variety of words. He uses evidence from the text to support his claims.

Writing is an important skill for all students if they are to become successful in school and in the work place. Student writing skills are known to be a gateway for college success as well as employment and promotion in the workplace (Graham 2008). Data has shown that students at the Nebo School District, in grades 5 and 8 are functioning at or below the average level for writing when compared with

Beside math and science, the education system also has set low academic expectation in writing and English classes. As mentioned above, writing long essay is rare and not required in High School. As a result of not being