“Analyzing Student Writing Proficiency and Assessment Measures in Programs of Journalism and Mass Communication,”
STUDY SHOWS IN DECLINE IN WRITING SKILL
The paper, titled “Analyzing Student Writing Proficiency and Assessment Measures in Programs of Journalism and Mass Communication,” is about the increasing pattern of poor student writing that has been prevalent in the past years.
Lingwall asserts that over the past 10 years, the overall writing skills of the average college student has greatly decreased. For his paper, Lingwall conducted a study based on a survey sent to 1,000 members of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communications. The survey recipients were asked to assess the writing skills of their students and rate them.
“We’re dealing with a substantial amount of time each week dealing with basic student writing issues that should have been resolved before they were admitted into the program,” Lingwall said.
“This means that we can’t bring up new ideas or move on to interesting things because we are correcting these problems.”
Lingwall lists possible causes for this reoccurring slump of poor writing. He suggests that maybe it’s poor writing instruction in the middle school or high school level; maybe students have not received proper instruction when they entered the university. He also points to the possibility of technology having an impact on student writing.
Technology affects everyone, and Lingwall brings up the possibility of “informal writing” having its effect on college students. According to his study, this is not an isolated problem confined to a certain region or area.
Lingwall discovered that even professors at big name schools such as Ohio State, West Virginia, Penn State and Syracuse were rating their student’s writing skills in the lower percentile.
“Apparently even the kids who are competing for admission to a larger university…still have a lot of writing problems, too,” said Lingwall.
Lingwall’s study shows students who aren’t good writers are going to do worse in school and get lower GPAs. Not only are they not
The paper, titled “Analyzing Student Writing Proficiency and Assessment Measures in Programs of Journalism and Mass Communication,” is about the increasing pattern of poor student writing that has been prevalent in the past years.
Lingwall asserts that over the past 10 years, the overall writing skills of the average college student has greatly decreased. For his paper, Lingwall conducted a study based on a survey sent to 1,000 members of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communications. The survey recipients were asked to assess the writing skills of their students and rate them.
“We’re dealing with a substantial amount of time each week dealing with basic student writing issues that should have been resolved before they were admitted into the program,” Lingwall said.
“This means that we can’t bring up new ideas or move on to interesting things because we are correcting these problems.”
Lingwall lists possible causes for this reoccurring slump of poor writing. He suggests that maybe it’s poor writing instruction in the middle school or high school level; maybe students have not received proper instruction when they entered the university. He also points to the possibility of technology having an impact on student writing.
Technology affects everyone, and Lingwall brings up the possibility of “informal writing” having its effect on college students. According to his study, this is not an isolated problem confined to a certain region or area.
Lingwall discovered that even professors at big name schools such as Ohio State, West Virginia, Penn State and Syracuse were rating their student’s writing skills in the lower percentile.
“Apparently even the kids who are competing for admission to a larger university…still have a lot of writing problems, too,” said Lingwall.
Lingwall’s study shows students who aren’t good writers are going to do worse in school and get lower GPAs. Not only are they not