Application essays and college writing

jmmom
Sun, 25 Feb 2007 11:45:09 +0000

I agree that a graded writing sample would be the best guage I can think of. SAT essay (which thankfully my S didn’t have to do; “old” SAT for him) is not a good guage - good writing is NOT what you can do in 25 minutes, but what you can do when you have time to plan, think, organize, write, revise, etc. And if the prompt leaves a kid cold, it’s just not an accurate assessment. Plus the “rubric” (hate that concept) which they are using to grade the thing leads the kids who have been trained to succeed on the test to write in a strange way, imo.



“relating literature to our personal life experiences” approach, which I think is a highly valid one

Agree. Some of the best writing DS did was in his post-Katrina writing intensive course at Tulane. They read a variety of literary pieces of different genres and from different eras, and related them to the experience of New Orleanians following Katrina. Led to great insight on his part, a huge leap in understanding of the human condition, and some very good writing. I’m sure, however, that this approach, as taken by some hs teachers, could also lead to inanity. Like everything, it has to be taught well to work.