I teach first year writing at a university. We do not assume students know how to write college level writing when they get here–that’s why we, and most colleges, have one, and often two, required first year writing classes. My students come from a wide range of backgrounds, but most, even from high-end New Jersey districts, are stuck in the five paragraph model which is what high schools tend to teach because it’s what high stakes tests tend to test, and I spend a lot of time telling them how it won’t cut it now.
The vast majority of what we teach is argumentative writing. One thing students need to know is that “research papers” still need to have an argument–just regurgitating info on a topic is not college level.
Being able to write about literature is a small part of college writing. The first semester is almost always non-fiction essays, and being able to take positions on ideas and issues. I’d suggest reading the opinion and perspective sections of respected newspapers for practice at comprehending abstract, sometimes difficult arguments and concepts.
Overall, learning good reasoning skills–using evidence, making claims, avoiding logical fallacies–will get a student far.
Of course, as has been said above–being able to know how to use whatever format is required is important. A student doesn’t have to know by heart the intricacies of MLA or APA, but they need to get adept at following the format, using style guides, and not freelancing (why students “guess” how to do an intext citation or the Works Cited, or the heading, etc, is a mystery to me–I keep telling them that it’s the easiest part of a paper to get right, and they keep making it up and getting it wrong.)
Agree with all, that Purdue OWL is one of the world’s great resources.
@dyiu13, perhaps if you give us idea of what interests her, we could suggest some authors/books/magazines.
BTW, I certainly did write many “argumentative” essays in college and grad school in the sense that @garland uses the term. Every paper should have an argument. (Well maybe not a “review of the literature” in the social sciences, but I’m not really familiar with those, although I have read one or two for friends.)
One writing device that I found useful, especially for more advanced college students, was to have the students write debate briefs. Over the course of the semester we would have three debates that built on the same underlying theme (e.g., civil liberties vs. security tradeoffs; inequality). Debates are all about arguments and counter-arguments but are built on facts, evidence. There were core readings that set up basic themes (e.g., justice, a la the Michael Sandel book and lectures; and the readings always included several Supreme Court cases and other writings), but for each debate the teams needed to understand both the philosophical issues and the specific facts related to the topic. e.g., “Is torture be justified?” “Should the per pupil funding of local schools be equalized across the state?”.
The students needed to make an argument as well as address counter-arguments, and they needed to base their positions both on theoretical, perhaps philosophical, criteria as well as empirical facts (e.g., Does torture work? Do progressive taxes reduce incentives to work hard?). Each participant on a debate team (3 or 4 students) had to write a brief on one or more aspects of the issue, and then to present their brief, and defend their position, during the debate. Successful teams had both a good offense and a good defense; they needed to understand both sides of the argument. That was the main point of the assignment.
For any given debate topic, some of the students played the role of “judges.” Their assignment was to write a “judgment,” akin to an opinion written by a Supreme Court Justice. To form their judgments, they took the written briefs as well as the oral arguments in the debates, and combined this with their own understanding of the core readings for the topic.
That gave me a lot of written work to grade. They got better over time. And they had something to say about public policy issues that were then current.
@garland , thank you, wonderfully helpful. If you don’t mind, I will send you a pm. And OP, thanks for starting this thread. I have a dyslexic and dysgraphic son, who does love to read, but hates writing. And his regular level English class is useless, IMO. I am worried about how he will handle college, but I feel a little less worried after reading this.
I teach writing and critical thinking to high schoolers in a college access program, and have taught college classes and writing workshops to college students. A lot of what she’ll be writing will differ depending on the major she chooses. A psychology major will write different things than an English major, and will use a different format/style guide.
I wouldn’t worry so much about the majority of things on the list you posted on page one, OP. Most college professors do not expect students to come in knowing how to write a literature review or a lab report - they teach that as part of their classes. In my first psychology class I learned how to write a literature review through a series of assignments targeted at that. And when I taught classes I assigned a literature review and my job was to help my students learn how to write it. I also assigned shorter written works that attempted to reflect things they might actually write - a proposal, a blog post/media writing, a white paper.
Honestly, out of that list I would say that a narrative essay and an argumentative essay (and not necessarily in the classic style - but taking a side and supporting it), both non-fiction, are probably the building blocks for learning everything else. If she has a decent idea of how to do that, then she should be able to learn most other things she’d need to for her major. Business writing (cover letters, resumes, etc.) come later - I have some friends who don’t really know how to write a good cover letter and I’m nearly a decade out of college, ha. They don’t really teach that in college. That doesn’t mean she shouldn’t learn it, but it can wait.
It would also be good if she became familiar with at least one style guide, as it’s easier to learn a second one if you know one already. Either MLA or APA is a good choice. MLA if she thinks she’ll be a humanities major; APA is better for social sciences and sciences. If she’s truly undecided, she should just pick one. I started out with MLA in high school and quickly learned APA (and elements of a couple other styles) in college - it really doesn’t matter.
Thank you all. This feedback is really helping me make the plan more manageable. D16 is going to be a psych major and mangement minor, with an early-entrance into a master of social work curriculum, aiming for the MSW.
I pulled the Reed material (fab, and reassuring that, yes, undergrads still need to be taught the basics of college-level writing). It linked to Purdue’s OWL, Harvard College’s writing center, and even a smidge from my fave UChicago Little Red Schoolhouse.
Tonight D16 asked for help updating her resume and filling in her LinkedIn (things I should be doing too…). I’m noticing some schools are using these practical forms to teach bits of freshman writing. Neither of us know how to write a Twitter tweet, though. (Late adopter here!)
In terms of the content that might interest her most over the months before freshman year…I will ask her. I’m guessing that she might zero in on supplements related to her current h.s. courses now, and then break free in the summer. No holds barred. She seems to be accepting and not rejecting the effort, which is nice. A lot of the advice above should also serve to calm her (and me) about being prepared for college.
OP - I’m glad you started this thread. While DS17 still has a year and is in AP Lang class every time my DH reads one of his essays or research papers he keeps saying he is that he is concerned DS is not ready for college… I have even started looking at how many English writing classes are required at colleges DS might apply to and seriously thought of taking a couple off the list. Its good to hear what others think kids should know before they get to college.
I think also it might be a good exercize to understand WHY we do citations…and why one style is useful over another.
Like APA includes the year in the in text citation…helpful to know if this is recent scholarship or not.
Also have her look at a Wikipedia article on a historical topic, and then have her follow the citations until she gets to primary source material. Then it is not just an annoying exercise to do citations, but to understand where you got your information…and then you can see where they got their information, etc.
But since she maybe lacking in this area, DO have her go to the Writing center at her college after she has done a draft.
My daughter who took both AP english lang and lit in HS (got 5’s on the exams) did not write a single thing in HS which was anything like what she has now written in college. These silly 5 paragraph essays etc. they assign in HS are useless.
Her college papers have used mostly APA style (the Purdue OWL is the bible for citation and format rules and has never let her down).
However, that being said - her college writing class (the advanced one - she APed out of freshman English) - did a great job of teaching different writing types (lit review, a paper based upon a book - not a book report, even a wikipedia entry). Also, if you are a good writer (that is you have the technical aspects under your belt) - it is easy enough to adapt to the types of papers that they require in college. Lots of college writing is putting ideas together and analysing concepts.
I suggest improving writing skills by doing two things - writing and reading (include non-fiction).
Thank you to posts #20 & #26. When we toured colleges I was surprised how many schools had required freshman writing classes. (What? Do you admit students who can’t write?)
It’s sad that some schools don’t teach beyond the 5 paragraph essay. I guess my children were fortunate with their high school writing classes.
OP, I would consider that if she is at a college that doesn’t require freshman writing (maybe by virtue of her test scores) that she take one anyway. That’s usually where they learn to write/ freshen up skills. Ds went to writing intensive HS magnet but they used Chicago style (?) so she had to learn another style. She skipped freshman writing based on scores and went straight to literature. She and one other girl did not know what a close reading was (which was taught in freshman writing) but went to professor and he went over expectations with them and they were fine. Every professor may expect something a little different - D was good writer but still went to writing center for a history class with a teacher that didn’t like the way she wrote - so writing center is good place to keep in mind. (She was chosen to present paper in other classes and one used her as example of exemplary writing, so don’t let your D get frustrated at one teacher she can’t seem to write for in college).
Also, both Ds schools (one small, one large) had requirements or opportunities to take classes on research methods. Look into that also.
Always have her ask if she can bring in outline or rough draft in advance of due date during office hours and go over it with professors. Most will graciously help out.
Both my girls did do real lab reports in HS. D found that even in big school honors section she had classmates that struggled with it.
Your D seems smart and if she is aware of potential shortfalls and is willing to ask for help she will be fine. She may be surprised at how many other kids lack experience in this area (or can’t really do it on their own because they had too much help in HS).
I was thinking about a summer college composition course for her. I found out that a local college won’t let her register for a class unless she has posted her h.s. diploma, and the courses start before high school ends. Instead, I’ll check on a MOOC or let her design something with me.
@intparent. My kids would never have participated in that. #1 was already a terrific writer (and is now a writer-journalist; he learned to make arguments as a high school debater). #2 would have said, “Why do I need to write better? My writing is grammatical, and besides, I’m an artist.”
I don’t know whether any bootcamp during that summer would have worked, since they were both trying to store up energy (and blow off some steam?) before they set off for college. Besides, I think the best preparation for being a good writer is being a good reader of good literature (fiction and nonfiction).
@dyiu13, honestly, what I see as the real potential problem here is that you say your D doesn’t like to read.
She is obviously bright enough to pick up whatever FORM of writing she encounters. All of the standard writing assists in college–the first year writing courses, the writing center, advice from professors–will take care of that. It sounds as if she already has a good grasp of grammar and spelling.
What she apparently does not now possess is a love of reading, and an appreciation of good writing.
I cannot repeat too often that I think you should be concentrating on making reading and THINKING about writing fun and interesting for her.
My advice again: stop with the drill and the practice of meaningless forms and READ GOOD WRITING with her, then discuss it. Good writing that INTERESTS her. If you can inspire her to value and enjoy reading, your battle is WON.
Absolutely pointing her toward good writing on her favored subjects. She has both a reading and writing LD, so the experience is pretty painful to her. She didn’t even bother to read until just before high school. Her dad’s a screenwriter and he and I are kinda soaked in words, but she’s never caught the wave. She talks pop culture with him and social issues with me, and we try (off-handedly?) to link it to source material. We don’t drill her, but we do try to help her think when she’s writing. Just tonight she turned a draft that was a stiff, dry, dull lit essay into a breezy read after we discussed what the audience needs to know about her subject. She stressed a bit, but in the end saw how her work transformed and was pleased. Helping her understand that research/writing is a process is probably the main goal. However, I don’t think we’ll ever see her read for pleasure, or even listen to audio books for kicks. Incomprehensible to hubby and me. But, she’s her own kid.
