How to Transition from High School to College Writing

Welcome, Class of 2021. We’re excited to have you.
Now that the first days of school have gone by, your workload will increase. Professors are eager to get into their material, meaning homework’s right around the corner.
As a result, you’re bound to get a writing assignment. That might spell trouble — since the last paper you wrote was at least 3 months ago.
Here are some tips to ease the transition between high school and college writing, making your freshman year less stressful:
1) Your thesis is more than a statement
One of the biggest differences between high school and college writing focuses on the thesis statement.
In high school, it served as a way to map your paper. Here’s an example:
I will describe how the author used setting, tone, and mood, in her book.
This thesis statement emphasizes the paper’s organization — one paragraph for each point. Though a logical structure is important in writing, the college academic environment requires more from you.
The college thesis states an argument. It makes a claim about the text, stating more than just the obvious. Rather than providing a roadmap for the paper, they offer a complex claim requiring evidence to support it. For example:
The author uses a dark mood to convey a certain message about the main character.
This thesis makes a claim about the author’s intentions. As a result, the paper needs to source proper evidence to substantiate this complex claim.
These arguments transform and embody their paper, allowing it to develop. As the argument grows, its presence gets stronger — making it easier for others to comprehend.
2) Understand Your Audience
An effective argument has an intended audience, and in high school, the audience was your teacher.
The college academic environment, in contrast, has a much larger audience. When writing in college, your ideas enter a dialogue between experts in the field. As a result, your ideas are accountable to many viewpoints.
Contact our library research staff to learn more about diverse academic opinions within a field.
Because your work enters a conversation between your academic peers, your work needs to be more coherent.
Though this may be harsh, it’s the reality of college academic writing. Your audience is more experienced, so logical fallacies or inconsistencies in your argument reduce its persuasive power.
3) Consider the real world application
One of the reasons academic writing can feel daunting is because there are often very real consequences for the field’s work.
Whether you find yourself writing about climate change, race relations, mental health, or political institutions, the real world application of your arguments identifies how you believe these problems should be solved.
Talk to a Write Place consultant to discover more real world applications.
As a result, you have the ability to shape the dialogue. If you see injustice in the world, pinpoint why it shouldn’t be overlooked. Even if you’re not writing about a world-changing issue, the best arguments make the case for why the problem matters.
Clearly stating your argument’s significance is one of the many successful college writing habits. The ability to do this shows you realize your words and ideas do not merely exist on paper — rather they transcend the field’s discussion by providing solutions to complex problems.
Learn more about college writing today
These are just a few tips to gain a better understanding of academic writing in the college environment. To learn more about how you can improve your strategies as an academic writer, schedule a peer-to-peer writing session with a Write Place consultant.
We’ll empower you to find effective writing tactics to leverage these tips above, allowing you to get a head start on college papers. These habits you build now will only help you going forward in your college career.
