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Volume 71, Issue 97,
Friday, February 24, 2006
News Students need help improving writing Undergraduate Council discusses weakness in language by FAITH DEGGINS
The Undergraduate Council held its first meeting of the year Wednesday to discuss the results of the Undergraduate Writing Assessment conducted last spring. Libby Barlow, executive director of institutional research, led the data collection. The data included 187 online faculty surveys, 547 student surveys and 419 student-writing samples from 20 writing assignments across campus. The study shows students consistently demonstrated audience awareness when writing papers for class. However, students are less consistent with supporting or citing evidence for research, making generalizations or citing irrelevant evidence. Language control is the weakest area for students. The council discussed how poor word usage distracts the reader from the overall presentation of the assignment. "It's not the grammar; it's the editing," said Steve Liparulo, director of pedagogy and instructional design. The council debated whether the poor samples are because students are lazy, or because they don't know how to proofread their work. Some University students do not possess the basic writing skills they need, and that adversely affects the success of students in classes that require them to write. "Whatever faculty members expect of students, (they) do better at that," Liparulo said. Sarah Fishman, associate dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, said professors must take more responsibility. "We have to break out of the idea that only English can teach writing," Fishman said. Martha Haun, associate professor of communication, said she believes correcting specific problems students have with writing is more important to improving their skills. But Marjorie Chadwick, executive director of the Writing Center, said her staff's goal is to equip students with the proper thinking strategies that will improve their writing without pointing out every grammatical or syntax error. Send comments to dcnews@mail.uh.edu |
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