Why Students Can’t Write
Effective writing is a critical college and career readiness skill. However, student writing quality continues to decline.
Colleagues and I are continually dismayed by the poor writing submitted by our college-level students. Subject-verb agreement errors, poor punctuation, and a general inability to express themselves plague much of their work.
Critics are quick to blame grade school teachers for the sad state of student writing. However, such accusations are short-sighted and unfair. Texting and a societal shift towards informality are also factors. A sad fact is that many teachers were also never inspired to enjoy writing.
Our public schools still suffer from lingering No Child Left Behind-era policies that emphasize high stakes tests that do not assess real writing. Vocabulary drills and multiple-choice questions designed to assess reading comprehension are a poor substitute for the joy available from wordplay and artful phrasing. Instead, bad policies incentivize educators to teach to the tests. Not surprisingly, when budgets and job security rely on test scores, if it isn’t tested, it isn’t taught.
Reciting a list of multi-syllable words does not make one a good writer. Good writing develops from reading and writing within the context of well-crafted paragraphs and passages. Worksheets rarely inspire. However, they dominate elementary and middle school writing instruction. Not surprisingly, facing a blank screen or piece of paper provokes anxiety in many students, even at the college level.
Educational policies have systematically de-emphasized writing. The College Board, administrators of the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT), announced this past month it is discontinuing its optional essay exam.
The fact is, teaching and grading writing is labor-intensive. The best instruction occurs in small groups, which is difficult to accomplish when crowded classes are the norm. However, some strategies work.
Peer-to-peer editing can be a great first step to helping students identify blind spots and improve their writing. When students pair up and read their work to one another aloud, they often hear mistakes and discover opportunities for improvement. Peers share a common language, and their perspective can feel far less intimidating than a teacher’s anticipated scrutiny. The approach can also lighten a teacher’s workload, given that students begin the correcting process before submitting assignments for grading.
Peer editing is among the many strategies our Journalistic Learning Initiative uses to support students. We find that students don’t resist journalistic assignments because they initiate them, and these assignments align with their own interests. Our peer-reviewed research confirms that JLI’s programs inspire students to write and collaborate. Since 2015, JLI has positively impacted the lives of more than 4,500 students at 18 schools in Oregon and California. We’ll soon announce a prominent Northwest region retailer underwriting JLI’s new Effective Communicators course in 20 rural communities next fall. More information about the course is available here.
Perhaps “Why Students Don’t Write” would be a better title for this post than “Why Students Can’t Write.” They can, when given lower-stakes opportunities to practice and are permitted to explore their intrinsic interests.
