Writing is a critical skill requiring attention and development in college. Effective communication, well argued papers, and logical, cohesive work are expected and should be every student’s goal. Yet many students arrive in college without having refined this skill: Some have not been in school for many years and need to refresh their abilities. Many more have slipped through high school ignoring the value of writing well. Habits of writing for electronic media, such as text messaging, may further impair the student’s ability and desire to write carefully and thoughtfully. Thus the first step to writing for college is trusting that doing it very well is worthwhile, and that this will become a valuable life skill that will serve students for the rest of their lives.
SPELLING AND GRAMMAR
Attention to spelling and grammar, with careful proofreading, is absolutely necessary. Students should never ignore the built in grammar, spelling and punctuation suggestions of most word processing software. It is inexcusable to turn in electronic versions of papers without correcting suggested mistakes. However, this is not enough. Even small errors can change or obscure the meaning of what is written, and these will not necessarily be caught by spelling grammar checkers. For example, homophones (words that sound alike) may be correctly spelled, but be incorrect in their meaning. Correctly spelled words may not be the correct words: Spell check will not notice the difference between Mary Queen of Scots and Mary Queen of Spots.
STRUCTURE AND LOGIC
Good writing requires full paragraphs with topic sentences and supporting evidence. Each paragraph must be linked in a segway to the next, and the overall logic of the composition should be evident. It is very easy to write in a stream of consciousness style in a word processing program, but this does not demonstrate sufficient forethought and planning.
CONSISTENCY OF PERSON, NUMBER AND TENSE
Person and Number refer to the nouns, including the subjects and objects, in the written discourse. Most formal writing still is written in third person (he, she, it, they), though much college writing accepts second person (you) as well. Writing employing I, or we is only appropriate for assignments that specifically ask for a personal perspective (such as journals) or for fiction. Consistency means using the same person and number within any sentence or paragraph.
Tense refers to verbs. Generally consistency should be maintained in writing about the past, present or future. However, there are certain kinds of constructions that require changes in tense, particularly sentences beginning with the word, if. It is important to be clear and consistent about the flow of time expressed by verbs in a composition.
DIRECTIONS
Directions for written assignments are like recipes: follow the directions and the assignment will come out the way it is expected. Ignore the instructions, or simply miss an ingredient, and the assignment is likely to flop. College writing instructions often refer to a particular manual of style, so it is important to know what that is and either own a copy of that manual or know how to access it on line. Directions often provide the amount and type of research that must be demonstrated as well as the required sections of the work. Students must make sure they understand the requirements: it is far better to ask about the directions than to turn in shoddy work.
PLAGIARISM
Most schools and many professors have zero tolerance for plagiarism, cheating, and unfair copying of material for assignments. Since the internet provides many ways of testing student work for copying, it is not worth the risk of punishment. Beyond the question of punishment, though, there is the problem of wasting money on an education that is neither fully engaged nor honestly pursued. The student who gets away with buying a paper, turning in redundant work, or copying and pasting is the one who actually comes up empty in the long run.
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