Universities will be forced to deduct marks for poor written English in students' work and will face tough sanctions if they don't [ UK ]

The Daily Mail UK ^ | 24 Jul 2021 | Julie Henry

[blueplum]

Universities are to be forced to to deduct marks for poor written English in students' work - and will face tough sanctions if they fail to do so.

Under proposals by the Office for Students (OfS) regulator, universities will be required to teach students 'relevant skills', assess them 'effectively' and ensure that any qualifications they issue are 'credible'....

...The move is intended to tackle poor quality courses and comes three months after The Mail on Sunday revealed the use of 'inclusive assessment' at some institutions under which technical ability in written English was not assessed....

...'If UK Universities are to be truly academic institutions and to retain any distinctive identity as such, then a high level of proficiency in written and spoken English is essential,' said Professor Tommy MacKay, visiting professor at the University of Strathclyde....

[blueplum]

well said, Professor.

now how about we do that here ?

[monkeyshine]

deduct marks for poor written English

Oh the irony. Deduct points from journalists... assuming they have any points left. Or since I've been corrected on at least one other thread tonight... maybe this is grammatically correct? I would have said "poorly written" not "poor written".

[Jamestown1630]

Very good. At least somebody is sticking up for Standards, in some area.

[jackibutterfly]

Good for you - that’s exactly what I was going to say. It should have been “poorly” written.

[Jamestown1630]

You would be correct, not to mention more elegant...

[gundog]

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZU_tMSordoU

[monkeyshine]

Elegant indeed. I drink tea with my pinkie sticking out. ;-)

[thecodont]

I think it is a wonderful idea. I hope that people will remember how to write well and teach that to others. I also hope that holding students to such standards won’t be called racist.

[chris haney]

How will the professors know

[Jamestown1630]

Well, that’s just affected.

[Truthoverpower]

There is three subjects in school that count

1- mathematics 🧮

2- reading the English language and understanding literature

3- being able to write the English language well. A complete thesis with references and footnotes

[gundog]

There are...

[AndyTheBear]

Why would the Universities not already do this?

[CivilWarBrewing]

You’re correct. That should be “poorly written” and it indeed was, lol.

[Blue Collar Christian]

You’re correct. “Poorly” is the adverb to be used for the verb “written”. “Poor” would be used only in the case of an adjective, as in “The poor English are failing grammar classes because they use poor English.

[blueplum]

reading between the lines of the article, it would seem the Office of Students will be ramping up inspections of produced work and/or grading curves, with the onus on the schools to prove their professors aren't using ‘alternate grading’ or “The OfS can withdraw funding or even university status if an institution fails to meet the requirememts.”

This seems a head-on, that's enough thank you, answer to the CRT seeping into curricula, “ ‘homogenous, North European, white, male, elite mode of expression’ and could disadvantage ethnic minorities”

[gitmo]

Poorly written

[faithhopecharity]

Good luck with that. Doesn’t he know English grammar is rawcist

[stormer]

In the old days, and depending on the discipline, fluency in a foreign language was expected. In chemistry, it was German.

[Captainpaintball]

dis be raciss