Transition Of Writing

It is essential to understand that classes taken in grade school do not give students a full understanding of each subject. With the topic of writing, there will always be a new lesson to learn, an aspect to improve, or a differing way to explain. Author Craig Vetter states in Bonehead Writing, “This is your enemy: a perfectly empty sheet of paper. Nothing will ever happen here except what you make happen.” Each story, essay, or response comes from a writer’s experiences. With each attempt at a new piece comes an underlying story of emotions the writer is facing. Each person’s writing is unique and the ideas people have are related to their past experiences and what they believe to be familiar with when deciding which writing style to use. As a high school student, I have learned many things about writing that helped me become the improved writer I am today, but the most essential advice I have received is practice makes perfect. Although there is no actual perfect way of writing, I have discovered that each essay I write, my writing improves. It is easier to spot mistakes, find areas to improve, and ponder elevated word choice to use.

As stated above, this section of the book specially emphasizes change of focus of your compositions when you start college writing. In high school your writing assignments are mainly executed using your personal opinions and your own self encounters. On the contrary, college writing is much more factual and involves critical thinking. Instead of your writing being inspired by your emotional thoughts on a subject, your words now need to be backed up by scholarly sources that can prove your information. This, however, does not mean that you will never write about yourself or your personal opinions, it just means that you need to provide proof for your beliefs. College writing also introduces you to different genres such as essays,

In the 2011 article “Helping Students Meet the Challenges of Academic Writing”, educators Linda Fernsten and Mary Reda offer innovative self-reflective writing exercises that post-secondary instructors can employ to help students improve writer self-image and academic writing. The authors’ rationale for reflective and practical writing strategies were developed from direct classroom experience, and are based on four (4) assumptions. Their claim that self-reflective writing can aid student writers in overcoming conflict (due to dominant culture, upbringing, former writing experiences, gender, and other marginalizing factors) to improve writer self-identity is plausible. However, their argument that cross-curriculum academic writing can be improved through self-directed, self-reflective writing requires further investigation.

To many people, writing is either considered a task, or an activity. There are also different types of writing for people to enjoy. In Josh Keller’s “Studies Explore Wether the Internet Makes Students Better Writer”, Keller describes how the internet has made students far better writers. He also describes how many students have described their dislike for academic writing but prefer their own personal blogging and/or journaling. This essay describes why struggling students often fail to write effectively because they find academic writing hard because they are not able to put their own thoughts and experiences into their essay. The idea of this essay was to describe the problems with students writing and the possible solutions for the problem. Keller mentions that the solution, that is not being pursued, is to combine academic writing with personal writing. He describes how many students write far better in their own personal writing and that these student’s personal writing

Writing consists of self expression, an outlet of creativity to communicate ideas. An individualism thought, purpose, and goal we are able to carry out towards our intended audience. Writing allows us to credit those who have impacted our lives positively. Furthermore, Academic essay writing is an important and effective piece in one’s life in order to gain knowledge that will allow us to present our ideas clearly and logically. Furthering your education consist of constantly writing papers in many college courses in order to convey your message across, therefore, it is important to be aware of how Academic Writing impacts ones education. Lucy Maud Montgomery, Edgar Allen Poe, and William

“The Novice as Expert: Writing the Freshman Year” reflected my writing experience while I transitioned from elementary writer to a critical writer. Sommers and Saltz write, “freshmen need to see themselves as novice in a world that demands ‘something more and deeper’ from their writing than high school” (Sommers and Saltz 134). This line highlights the hardship that most students face when trying to write successfully. My earlier written works were much weaker than my current pieces because I often wrote for the sake of passing the class. While developing my writing, I focused on the new ideas that were introduced rather than limiting my argument to familiar techniques and ideas. Because of my new attitude towards writing, I began to demand

In “How Do I Write a Text for College” (The World is a Text, 2006), Patty Strong said that writing in in college is much more different than writing in high school and so as the purpose of it. In high school student were told to write texts depending on their prior knowledge while on an institution of higher education students have the flexibility to write not only about what they already learnt but what they are trying to learn. In addition, writing in college requires a higher level of critical thinking and understanding, but it will unequivocally expand their knowledge.

As seniors about to embark on a journey into the adult world, it’s important to be prepared for what college professors expect in an essay. The article, What do College Professors Want from Incoming High School Graduates, was very insightful on how different the rules are. It states the different skills and mindsets an incoming freshmen must have to succeed in more advanced writing classes. It explains how high school and college writing differ, also how the two are similar. In order to be successful in school and in life one must become independent and open to change.

In the article by Downs and Wardle “Teaching about Writing, Righting Misconceptions”, the author’s state a common misconception of writing for first year composition is that academic writing is somehow universal. This idea can be misleading since teachers have always taught that there is a basic set of rules for writing. However, I agree with the idea that writing is not universal because college students write for a various number of discourse communities and do not have one general audience. Content, context, and genre are bound to change while attending a university.

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

College writing to me is a new chapter in my life. I am only a junior in high school, which means I have quite a ways to go when it comes to learning and maturing as a person. As I take on this new chapter I expect to see my writing change along with me, for I’ll have new experiences and feelings to put forth in my writing.

Teaching writing has a way of forcing me to evaluate my principals and ethics on a daily basis. This is an exhausting task. While it could be argued that teachers of all subjects have to deal with this dilemma, the very nature of writing presents a unique situation. Students cannot seem to resist writing a personal essay whether one is requested or not. A teacher of Math or Chemistry is not likely to receive an essay in which personal information is disclosed. Even with my limited years of experience teaching writing in college and high school, I can confirm that students write mainly about what they know. And what they know best is their own lives. Receiving essays and verbal communications of a personal nature-and in turn responding to such offerings---seems to be part of the job. This observation confirms one of the conclusions drawn by Dan Morgan in an essay entitled “Ethical Issues Raised By Students’ Personal Writing” published in College English in March 1998. Morgan illustrates some of his experiences as a writing teacher and more importantly, shares with his reader insights about the ambiguous complexion of writing instruction today:

Expressing myself through writing has always exhilarated my mind. Throughout grade school, I was continuously composing poems and short stories, not only for class assignments, but for the pure joy of doing it. However, entering a college English course terrified me. Having graduated fourteen years prior, and only flexing my writing muscles for personal journal entries and job resumes, I felt intimidated. Yet, I understood that in order to succeed in college, and my future career, I would need to absorb the knowledge of techniques, structures, and critical thinking skills presented within this course.

Now that I’m a junior and am taking dual credit classes, I have a whole different view on college writing. Now I see it as a professional way of writing, I feel like that how adults write. You have that high school writing that just keeps on going and doesn’t really state what it’s supposed to. On the other hand you have the adult way to write;

Strong writing needs strong support. In academic writing, a convincing claim has to be supported by many pieces of evidence. However, having evidence is not enough. The evidence must be comprehensively analyzed and connected to the claim. In essence, each piece of evidence acts like a pillar that supports a building. The stronger the pillars are, the more robust the building becomes. During Writ 1, I have felt that my writing was weak from not truly understanding how to use evidence. In my earlier essays, I did not thoroughly analyze my evidence because I thought it could explain itself. I have learned that each piece of evidence needs a complete introduction, analysis, and conclusion. I have worked on improving the treatment