Standing on my soapbox...

No, I'm not talking politics. I am, however, in need of a good venting session. Or maybe a ranting session is more accurate.

The ability of college students these days to write coherent, formal, academic papers is severely lacking. I mean, severely lacking. Now, I know that in some ways being good at writing is something you inherently have or do not have. Still, to a large degree the ability to write is a learned skill. So, what is happening? Is writing not being taught before college? I distinctly remember a lot of time being spent in my English classes learning how to craft a good paper. Are schools no longer focusing on writing?

After spending 1 year teaching reading and writing at an elementary school in Asheville, I do feel like I have adequate knowledge about standardized testing in schools to complain about it. You see, so much emphasis is placed on particular subjects that others do not get sufficient attention. I know that states do issue writing tests, but maybe their failure to focus on the study of history later hurts college students trying to write history papers...

I have taught multiple classes every semester for the last 7 semesters. And I am so tired of reading terrible papers. Of trying to help lazy (or stupid) students form a coherent sentence. I've become jaded and cynical... but every now and then even I am still surprised by what students submit for a grade.

* No, the Salem witch trials did not occur in the 1950s.
* Jesus did not walk on the earth 200 years ago.
* Texting shorthand is not acceptable in formal papers-- nor are curse words...
* Your feelings do not matter to me. I do not care if the primary sources you read made you feel mad/sad/shocked/horrified, etc. I do not care if you have a cousin who has an aunt whose daughter experienced something similar to the story you read about. I do not want to hear about how you, as a mother, felt so sorry for the children who worked in industrial Europe. I don't care, I really, really, don't.
* Where and were are two different words, they cannot be used interchangeably.
* There/their/they're- you should have learned the difference in grade school.
* Don't start a sentence with a number, it just looks ridiculous. (i.e. "27 years ago...)
* If you use 4 sentences to get your point across when you could have used 1, I will know you are just trying to meet the paper length requirement. I am not stupid.

What really irritates me is 1) students that have no idea how to write a college-level paper but still fail to ask for help or 2) students that submit a rough draft which I painstakingly revise and then resubmit a paper without making the corrections. I give them an even lower grade just for wasting my time.

The frustrating part is that I truly want students to learn how to write papers. But, I appear to be on this mission alone. So many professors these days (and probably secondary teachers also) are no longer assigning paper assignments because they are so much work to grade. The result is students that have no clue. They can't spell, they don't understand even simple rules of grammar, and they have no idea how to craft a logical argument.

Now, I enjoy writing papers, even academic ones. I like to research and go through draft after draft to get that one sentence just right. Writing well is an art form that I am trying and trying to master. I know that not everyone feels this way about writing. However, to succeed in the academic world, despite the area of study, this is an absolutely necessary tool.

So, I am on a mission. I may spend my entire career trying to start a revolution in the writing skills of our college students. But, it will be well worth it.

Stay tuned for more venting sessions. Up next: homeschooling and hunting...