Valerle Struss Should Be Taught Summary

The problem is when professor ask their students to take on writing in this new way without any experience when the professor ask them to deny the situation in the classroom where students have little power and the teacher has the power. This is problems students struggle with writing come from. When students try to have this power that the professor gives them they often just end up imitating their professor rather than coming up with their own ideas. Students need to put themselves into the situation they are writing to for discovery to happen. Another problem with students writing is the they not being put into an academic setting and have to take exams that don’t have writing. Bartholomea blames this on the teachers and the syllabus for writing in the class room. These problems can be fix went we change the academic format and rewrite them. After this the teacher can start teaching their students to think,

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.

Murray is insightful not only to instructors but also to learners. Murray argues that the challenge facing writing is the fact that teachers have treated it as a product rather than a process and the same concept passed on to students. The author holds that the main problem with this view is that students get to receive irrelevant criticisms that are not related to their learning goals. While I tend to agree with the author based on the arguments presented, it is notable that Murray has paid little attention to the idea of education in the contemporary world. In most learning institutions, the outcome of the writing is considered more than the process. As a teacher paying attention to the process of writing but not be consistent with the students, who are mostly driven by

In my childhood I was not taught the fundamentals of proper writing. Nor was it influenced in my household to dedicate time for writing. My father owned his own business, therefore, I always saw him writing inventory and receipts. As for my mother, I can recall her writing down messages from phone calls. At school I found little to no growth in my writing. When I did face a task that required legible writing I would seek help from my friend Sandra. This class is by far the first English course I have taken were I could truly say lectures are broken down enough for me to develop satisfactory growth. I am still a developing writer, but I have made a lot of progress because of influences of my own desire to learn, Professor Anna C. Morrison, and

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.

Christine Love Thompson discusses strategies that she believes are the foundation to “good” writing in the article, “A Dose of Writing Reality: Helping Students Become Better Writers.” Thompson discovers that it is not correct spelling and grammar that makes a “good” writer; it is the voice of the student. She uses sources to support her claim that methods such as using graphic organizers and her constantly making corrections are not as effective as they seem. Thompson organizes the article to ensure better understanding of the process she went through to help her students become better writers.

With the winter semester ending, I have been reflecting about my writing English 101 class. In this Semester I studied and learned to write professionally after performing many tasks and assignments. Through basic writing errors, analytical moves, developing paragraphs, introduction and conclusion, I was able to learn to write correctly and even different from what I had written before. For example, in the old days I used to make a sentence by typing: I see it, or I say so, but now I can write without repeating the word I.

Through our life, ignorance is replaces by knowledge, and it is from that knowledge that we gain wisdom. Writing is an art from, one that has been developed and revised for over hundreds of years. History may teach us that we repeat are same mistakes, but that does not change the fact that life’s greatest teacher is experience, and it is experience that shapes a writing style and literacy understanding.

The transition from high school to college writing can be frustrating, for it can come easily to some, but difficult to others. In high school, writing was a mere chore-students would only write what the teacher wanted to hear. They wrote between the lines, saying only what was necessary for a grade. As opposed to high school, a writer in college is expected to have a voice. They are expected to have a strong stance on the topic given to them and be able to efficiently express their opinions with their writing. In college, there are more expectations on how students perceive certain topics and what kind of vocabulary they decide to use, but most importantly, how they decide execute their ideas. Powerful evidence to support their writing is

Many Americans have trouble writing. They believe they are good at writing only because they don't'know anybetter. They believe e that their grammer and punctuation is adaquite or even Perfect, until they have to write a paper that is graded at a college level. I had this experience on a recent promotional exam. I believed that I was a good writer and didn't study much for this part of the exam. I refuse to let this happen to me again. I will become the writer that I ,foolishly, believed I was by learning the parts of a sentence, meeting with a tutor and using this site.

School systems not paying enough attention to the English departments is one reason why students are unable to write. Leef notes, “From personal experience, I can attest that he’s correct. Many students enter college with amazingly poor writing ability, owing to the fact that no one paid much attention to their writing while they were in their K-12 years” (2). English departments need to be taken more seriously, if the base of a student’s writing skills are not even good, it is very difficult for a student in college to start with no knowledge of writing to trying to excel at it.

Another reason it is essential to place an emphasis on creative writing in the classroom is because of today’s rapidly developing society. As the world has become so technologically advanced, there have become more and more ways for people to use written communication to express their thoughts. Where there was once snail mail and emails, now things have become as instantaneous as a text message or Tweet. Since people seem to write with such haste and almost carelessness today, it is important for students to be provided with slower paced writing exploration in the classroom. In “Writing for the Instant Messaging and Text Messaging Generation: Using New Literacies to Support Writing Instruction,” Sheelah M. Sweeney states, “Teachers may be concerned about the way some students write […] imagining the potential negative impact on their students’ academic writing, but this interest can be an instructional advantage” (Sweeney, 2010, p. 121). While naturally there may be cause for concern with the way students can erroneously communicate so quickly through the written word, the unease teachers may have will actually be a good thing for students if these educators move forward with awareness instead of ignorance. Technology is one aspect of society that will not be regressing in the future, and the best way educators can adapt to this is by incorporating these advancements into the education of students in years to come.

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

But, there is a reason people are more inclined to texting than writing. Writing has always been a daunting task meant for those who can commit. Poor writing has always been a concern for institutions since time in memorial. It is estimated that more than 50% of first-year students in colleges and universities who fail entry examinations are always weak in writing. When technology came, it offered an easy way out for those who fear writing. Texting and other forms of media messaging allowed for people to break the rules of writing under the umbrella of convenience. For those who sought to look a bit professional, technology also offered shortcuts in formatting, style and general presentation of the work.

There are many skills that students learn throughout their educational career. Among one of the most important skills that students will gain is the ability to write. They will not only learn the penmanship skills needed to physically put words on a paper, but they will learn how to communicate their thoughts and ideas using those words. Tony Wagner (2008) recognizes “effective oral and written communication” as one of seven survival skills needed to “thrive in the new world of work” (p. 21-22). Preparing students for the 21st century workforce is a both a personal focus and school-wide focus of my inner city high school. As a campus, we constantly work to provide students with opportunities to strengthen the skills outlined by Wagner. When test scores arrive we always fall short in one area: writing.