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I went to a community college, then a private liberal-arts oriented school, then grad school for computer science. In my community college writing courses, I was often the only student who turned in papers that met the requirements (for instance, being “research papers” rather than essays). At my four-year school, I had professors comment to me outside class that I was far and away the best writer in their courses and they were surprised I was a comp sci major (I always gave my mother credit for teaching me to write)

Now, in graduate school, those of us for whom English was a first language all seemed proficient at producing papers (usually, one research paper/project report per course). I’m not sure if that reflected the higher intellect required for grad school or what but my fellow CS students and I were certainly head and shoulders above my old undergraduate classmates for writing.

My mother, who has a high school education, taught me how to write a mean paper. She did it so well, I don’t have to think about it. Since I was homeschooled she knew it was part of her job but any parent could, with a few hours a week, teach writing skills to her child. If, that is, they know their kid needs help...

I agree Jen, and good for your Mother for teaching you so well. My daughter was only homeschooled during middle school but her high school education was almost entirely honors classes, so it was more like a private school than public for her. She had one math class with the "general population" and when my husband and I visited for Parent's Night the teacher apologized to us.... seriously. He said there were some rowdy kids in that class and he recognized that our daughter was in other honors classes and just needed this credit. He said it would be a difficult semester for her because of the noise/confusion in the classroom. It helped us, and her, to know that he recognized that from the beginning.

We have homeschooled our son since 7th grade and he is a very good writer as well. However, he and I are working on the research notations and other requirements this year.