High School and College Writing: The Difference
Introduction
The differences are too many to count, but the most prominent ones that can be listed are the variation in the time period of academic sessions, the differences between the attendance policies, the levels of guidance provided to students, but the most prominent change that takes place is that in the homework of the students; the writing in particular. College writings are harder and need much more attention, even though most homework is not graded, which is yet another difference between high school and college. All schoolwork is graded but some of college work is not graded and grading basically revolves around tests and major papers.
Differences between High School Writing and College Writing
A number of differences are present between high school and
college writing. Certain students do not have much problem with the
changes that take place in writing, but some students at the other hand
are confused and disturbed by the experiences they gain through writing
for college level classes. These are the students, who previously in
their schools received praises from their teachers, but now things have
changed and the teachers at school are very critical about the writings
of the same students and they do not receive the same amount of praise.
As it is said, “often, what your instructors are asking of you is not
just something better, but something different. If that's
the case, then you won't succeed merely by being more intelligent or
more skillful at doing what you did in high school. Instead, you'll need
to direct your skills and your intelligence to a new task” (Williams
and McErney, p.1).
A necessary thing to note here is that the college is
a bigger place as compared to a school and expectations are much higher,
hence writing is used so as to accomplish diverse tasks. The differences
that exist between high school and college writings are many. First of
all, ALL the college writings need to have a firm argument. Here it is
necessary to note that the argument of college writing must have
supportive evidence for the thesis statement. This is necessary for
convincing the reader. It is true that everyone holds different opinions
over everything, but through knowledge these views can be changed into
something that one believes in. This is why college papers require more
evidence and answers as compared to school papers. It is said that,
“we write in a way that allows others to test our reasoning: we
present our best thinking as a series of claims, reasons, and responses
to imagined challenges, so that readers can see not only what we think,
but whether they ought to agree” (Williams and McErney, p.1). Here it
is necessary to note that school writings are not as focused.
Another difference is in the expectation of the
teachers as well as in the way they would explain the requirements of
the writing. Some teachers go into in-depth details of the paper for the
easiness of the students while some would remain very vague about their
expectations. Here, to write a good paper, a college student must
confirm the requirements of the teacher and this is a major difference
between high school and college writing. Another prominent feature of college writings is that they
revolve around a certain “point”, which is usually known as the
thesis statement, while school writings remain vague. This “point”
is considered to be the most important part of a writing and then comes
the evidence etc which was discussed previously. The point chosen by the
student must be clear and easily understandable by all.
Conclusion
In the light of the above discussion we can hereby culminate that a number of differences exist between high schools and colleges and one of the most prominent difference is that of writings. The differences are such that they make college writings harder which make college years hard for some students.
Works Cited
Williams, Joseph and McErney, Lawrence. Writing in College. Retrieved on May 15, 2007 from:http://writing-program.uchicago.edu/resources/collegewriting/high_school_v_college.htm
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