Posted on 02/21/2014 5:24:09 PM PST by Zeneta
Why Can’t College Students Write Anymore?
Is it just me, or are student competencies like basic writing skills in serious peril today? Granted, I am about a decade in to my teaching career, but even within this fairly short span, I have noticed a startling decline in the quality of written work turned in by my students, regardless of which institution (community college, private, four year school) the papers are coming from.
It’s not just that students aren’t demonstrating critical thinking skills in their writing, basic competencies like proper syntax, spelling, and even proper structure like paragraph indentation and how to cite sources are being done very poorly. Teachers have been reporting anecdotally that even compared to five years ago, many are seeing declines in vocabulary, grammar, writing, and analysis (e.g. Westin, 2013; Bloomberg News, 2012). Moreover, on an international scale, our standards in literacy is similarly on the decline (McGuire, 2014).
There are only so many times you can correct a “their” that is meant to denote “there” before wondering, when was the last time this college student’s writing abilities were actually assessed? As a psychology professor, I am starting to feel like an English instructor, because so much of my feedback on these papers is focusing on such basic writing skills, that the coherency or theoretical merit behind the content is getting lost in the shuffle.
Snip
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-first-impression/201402/why-can-t-college-students-write-anymore
(Excerpt) Read more at psychologytoday.com ...
P.S. Since before I started college in 1991 (well after high school) the largest number of classes offered were remedial English and remedial math.
The leftists teaching our kids only care that they’ve been properly indoctrinated.
There is no desire to impart critical thinking or communications skills.
Because most of them aren't classically educated homeschoolers like my two kids currently in college.
Mind if I gloat a little?
:D
Because the education bureaucracy in this country is only useful as a money laundering operation for Democrats. Actual education is much farther down on their list of priorities.
k thxbai!
CC
A PHD actually wrote that title?
I was about a sentence in to the article, when I noticed problems with this author’s own ability to write. Ironic, eh?
ROFLMAO. I txt u gud. What the prblm?
Schools are indoctrination centers and don’t teach writing or thinking. Why should they? They get the money regardless of the outcome of students. Thinking writing students won’t be easy to control.
In college, modern writing is in 140 characters or less.
Start by reading to your kids when they are too young to read for themselves. It teaches them how to visualize the words and makes them want to read for themselves later. Worked for me (when I was a kid). It starts with reading, because, as another already put it, how can you teach someone music if they've never heard music?
Blogs.
No, the author's right. I can't believe how degraded written English has become over the last decade or so. This website is a prime example. It's actually becoming hard to find two consecutive posts with no spelling, grammatical, or punctuation errors in them.
The language isn't changing, but the quality of instruction and standards are.
“our standards in literacy is similarly on the decline”
I guess the is, isn’t they?
they
Ping for later
Spot-on, Johnny. Thank God I went to school during an era when people still demanded excellence from students, and went the distance to make sure every kid was firmly grounded in the basics.
Not at all. I'm a home school dad myself :-)
It is because proper grammar, spelling, and pronunciation as well as basic math skills are now regarded as “racist”!
Please understand.
This is NOT some liberal/progressive/communist/statist conspiracy.
They are on auto pilot.
They are true believers and don’t have any grand plan for remaking our culture.
The issue is wholly different.
The issue is “how” did this thought process gain soo much traction ?
How have we allowed the teaching of “uncertainty”, the embrace of “Uncertainty” to gain dominance ?
What can we do about it ?
I’m open to ideas.
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