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WRITING TRANSFER: HIGH SCHOOL TO COLLEGE​

 

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          Based on current research in the field, the gap between high school seniors and many first-time college freshmen in writing courses occurs due to issues with differences in standards and expectations. High school teachers are required to "teach to the test" to keep funding, their jobs, and to promote No Child Left Behind. To keep this law, state tests attempt to make writing quantifiable, which causes 5 paragraph essays and other systematic and easily-gradable writing. However, college instructors are not expecting easy-to-grade papers. They prefer thoughtful and higher-order thinking that requires analysis and synthesizing of multiple sources and opposing ideas. Due to this misalignment of standards, students struggle with transferring their writing knowledge between high school and college.

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Works Cited

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• Farris, C. R. (2010). Minding the gap and learning the game: Differences that matter between high school and college writing. In K. Hansen & C. R. Farris (Eds.), College credit for writing in high school: The “taking care of “ business (pp. 272-282). Illinois: National Council of Teachers of English.

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• Yancey, K. B., Robertson, L., & Taczak, K. (2014). Writing across contexts: Transfer, composition, and sites of writing. Boulder, CO: University Press of Colorado.