Writing help for college student

MommaJ
Sun, 18 Mar 2012 15:59:57 +0000

D is a college junior, has a learning disability (NVLD) that makes it challenging for her to organize her thoughts and properly structure her writing in essay tests and papers. She’s managed to do well through sheer brainpower and the fact that, unlike when I went to college, many of her exams are short answer or multiple choice (don’t get me started on how ridiculous I think that is…). But as she takes more upper level classes, the writing demands are increasing, and inevitably her grades are pulled down (A’s become B’s) every time there’s a major writing component. As she describes it, she reads the question, panics about time management, starts writing immediately without knowing exactly where she is headed, and ends up with a flawed piece of writing that doesn’t accurately reflect her knowledge of the subject. She has more success with papers, but there’s still lots of room for improvement. Her actual writing on a sentence by sentence basis is perfectly fine–grammatical, lucid, with a sophisticated vocabulary. It’s the big picture that’s the issue. She plans to get a masters degree in a program were I think excellent writing will be even more critical.

So…D will have a hefty chunk of time between the end of spring semester and the start of her summer job and could spend most of it on a writing improvement project. Can anyone recommend a resource? Every program I find is geared toward younger students. As I see it, she needs strategies for analyzing an essay question and devising her response and for effectively structuring her papers. Ideally, someone would look at her current work, offer constructive critiques, and work with her on better approaches. I’d appreciate any thoughts on how she can attack this problem. (And yes, there is a writing center at her school, but she is loathe to use it–I think perhaps there’s an embarrassment factor at work, plus she does everything at the last minute, so would never have enough time to submit a draft to the center.)

I actually think I could help her immensely, but the parent-child relationship would be an impediment. She doesn’t take criticism from me with any grace, and the whole process would devolve into squabbles over and over. She is far more likely to accept correction from a third party.

Thanks in advance for any advice.