Shouldn’t it be anylonger?
Anywho, they cannot write because they are not asked to. When they are asked to they are asked about their feelings or not their thoughts. Logic is no longer taught. The trivium is no longer taught. The are not aske to do expository writing. They are not asked to describe anything in detail. They may not discuss whether something is good or bad only how all is equal. They text continuously and never craft anything in writing.
AND...THE NUMBER ONE REASON THEY CANNOT WRITE!
They do not read.
Try teaching music to someone who has never heard it.
I was about a sentence in to the article, when I noticed problems with this author’s own ability to write. Ironic, eh?
Gotta agree with you
I am a High school dropout and damned proud of it
Circa 1978-but I loved to read. Everything from crappy crime novels to Brave New World, Fahrenheit 451 and other science fiction, along with Greek classics
Joined the AF. Training was and is my love. Found an affinity for writing training scenarios and Operations orders, then instructions and regulations.
That skill has served well. I hire and fire now, and one thing I see is a complete unawareness on the part of most on decent (Not necessarily Proper) use of language and presentation. Idjits that have ragingdouche@yahamama.com for an e-mail just plain get chucked in the trash.
If they do make it for an interview, the inability to articulate a simple sentence just grates badly. “Like” and “You Know” take over any coherent thought.
I am by no means an English snob , but dammit, they don’t even know enough to at least make an effort.
God forbid they are asked to write a report
It could be that the way they are taught in elementary school is to write it any way they want in the beginning. “See Jane run” is no longer taught. Garbage in, garbage out. There are no rules.
Good catch.
Your whole post is excellent and to the point.
Bingo!
When you read you pick up things without even realizing it. They should do a test on these students for reading comprehension.
Yes. I was taught that to learn to write I needed to read. And read a lot. Who reads anymore?
They do not read and when asked to write a paper all most do is cut and paste. They are very good at plagiarism
Affirmed. What is their reading level?
You're correct. "Anymore" is a quantitative continuation whereas 'anylonger' is a temporal continuation. The whole excerpt demonstrates poor writing and composition skills.
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.
Did a professor just end a sentence with a preposition?! I supposed that professing psychology entitles her to correct language. My corrections in bold:
"Is it just me, or are student competencies[,] such as ('like' suggests a simile, not a part of the matter itself) basic writing skills, lately imperiled? Granted, I am about a decade into (a single preposition, 'in to' requires a transitive verb) 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 institutions (colleges public and private, two and four year schools) (because, in listing related items, a writer should introduce the object class common to all items in the list and differentiate in the progression) from which the submissions issue (because the papers are not 'coming from' colleges, as the sentence dictates, but are rather from students in college).
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).
Not only is the first sentence merely a repetition of the introduction of the first paragraph, but it is, itself, introduced by the repetitive use of "it's just". A good writer will vary their sentence structure. This writer likes "like" so much that one like clause is embedded in another. Perhaps that's how they've come to overpopulate the article. The predicate "are being done very poorly" seems to take "proper structure" as its object, in which case they don't match. Since "Teachers have been reporting" that "many are seeing", I have to wonder if the "many" are teachers or whether teacher know of many who who are seeing this. The comma between "years ago" and "many are" would only make sense if there were also a comma between "ancedotely that" and "even compared" thus isolating the complete thought 'teachers are reporting ancedotely that they are seeing declines in...' from "even compare to five years ago". The author complains about student citation, apparently unaware of the great many citation formats which have currency among the various disciplines, and completely unaware that her own citations are improper.
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.
If "wondering" is supposed to introduce an inner monologue, the expressed thought should be contained in quotes. It should read as either:
"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?'"
Or
"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" would only make sense if feeling like an English instructor were part of professing psychology. Perhaps she meant to write "Despite being a psychology professor...". She should try responding to a Psychology Today article through a clunky Free Republic html console.
In considering her question "why can't college students write anymore?", I would think that the proliferation of worthless psychology degrees, and the consequential overabundance of psychology professors, has a great deal to do with it.b