{"id":1199,"date":"2017-10-11T15:39:19","date_gmt":"2017-10-11T15:39:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-jeffersoncc-styleguide\/?post_type=chapter&p=1199"},"modified":"2025-11-21T10:50:32","modified_gmt":"2025-11-21T10:50:32","slug":"academic-writing","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-jeffersoncc-styleguide\/chapter\/academic-writing\/","title":{"raw":"Academic Writing","rendered":"Academic Writing"},"content":{"raw":"
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Writing as a College Student<\/h2>\r\n

As a college student, you have been writing for years, so you probably think that you have a clear understanding about academic writing. High school and college writing, however, differ in many ways. This chapter will present some of those core differences along with a general overview of the college writing process.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n

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11.1<\/span> Meeting College Writing Expectations<\/h2>\r\n
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Learning Objectives<\/h3>\r\n
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  1. Understand and describe differences between high school and college writing.<\/li>\r\n \t
  2. Recognize some of the core principles and values of higher education.<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n<\/div>\r\n

    If you\u2019re like most first-year college students, you\u2019re probably anxious about your first few writing assignments. Transitioning from being a successful high school writer to being a quality college writer can be difficult. You have to adjust to different learning cultures. You have to accept that college writing is different from high school writing and come to understand how it is different.<\/p>\r\n

    These students relay a typical range of first-year college experiences:<\/p>\r\n

    Emma: I always got As on my high school papers, so I thought I was a good writer until I came to college and had to completely rewrite my first paper to get a C\u2013.<\/p>\r\n

    Javier: I received an F on my first college paper because I \u201cdid not include one original thought in the whole paper.\u201d I thought I was reporting on information I had researched. I didn\u2019t know that I was supposed to add my own thoughts. Luckily, the professor had a policy to throw out each student\u2019s lowest grade of the semester.<\/p>\r\n

    Danyell: The professor in my Comp 101 class said that he didn\u2019t want us turning in anything meaningless or trite. He said that we were to show him that we had critical thought running through our heads and knew how to apply it to the readings we found in our research. I had no idea what he was talking about.<\/p>\r\n

    Pat: I dreaded my first college English class since I had never done well in English classes in high school. Writing without grammatical and mechanical errors is a challenge for me, and my high school teachers always gave me low grades on my papers due to all my mistakes. So I was surprised when I got a B+ on my first college paper, and the professor had written, \u201cGreat paper! You make a solid argument. Clean up your grammar and mechanics next time and you will get an A!\u201d Suddenly it seemed that there was something more important than grammar and punctuation!<\/p>\r\n\r\n

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    What\u2019s \u201cHigher\u201d about Higher Education?<\/h2>\r\n

    Despite the seeming discrepancy between what high school and college teachers think constitutes good college writing, there is an overall consensus about what is \u201chigher\u201d about higher education.<\/p>\r\n

    Thinking with flexibility, depth, awareness, and understanding, as well as focusing on how you think, are some of the core building blocks that make higher education \u201chigher.\u201d These thinking methods coupled with perseverance, independence, originality, and a personal sense of mission are core values of higher education.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n

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    Differences between High School and College Culture<\/h2>\r\n

    The difference between high school and college culture is like the difference between childhood and adulthood. Childhood is a step-by-step learning process. Adulthood is an independent time when you use the information you learned in childhood. In high school culture, you were encouraged to gather knowledge from teachers, counselors, parents, and textbooks. As college students, you will rely on personal assistance from authorities less and less as you learn to analyze texts and information independently. You will be encouraged to collaborate with others, but more to discuss ideas and concepts critically than to secure guidance.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n

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    How the Writing Process Differs in College<\/h2>\r\n

    It\u2019s important to understand that no universal description of either high school or college writing exists. High school teachers might concentrate on skills they want their students to have before heading to college: knowing how to analyze (often literary) texts, to develop the details of an idea, and to organize a piece of writing, all with solid mechanics. A college teacher might be more concerned with developing students\u2019 ability to think, discuss, and write on a more abstract, interdisciplinary level. But there are exceptions, and debates rage on about where high school writing ends and college writing begins.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

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    Key Takeaways<\/h3>\r\n