College Students Can’t Write?

By tsrk30

A Blog is simply a web page in which a person or persons write short or long articles. For those interested you can read an informative article about Blogs at the following link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weblog

Now since blogs are written articles, the quality of the blog usually is dependent upon the person's ability to write. This is the very thing that concerned me with creating a blog. Most people agree that I am a very good public speaker, but the ability to write is a very different thing. What is amazing is that it appears that many people have the same problem. Consider the following article:
College Students Can’t Write?What a “scoop.”
By Stanley K. Ridgley

he Chronicle of Higher Education recently discovered something that parents have known for at least the past 15 years — America's universities don't teach college kids how to write . . . at least, not how to write very well.
In fact, hundreds of thousands of recent college graduates today cannot express themselves with the written word. Why? Because universities have shortchanged them, offering strange literary theories, Marxism, feminism, deconstruction, and other oddities in the guise of writing courses. They've offered everything, really, but the basics of clear writing.
This higher-education failure has been an open secret among employers and among those of us who have dealt with college writers and their writing over the years. I witnessed this deficiency myself as a college instructor at Duke University. Only now has this gross failure of higher education drawn the attention of the Chronicle.
Although the expose in the Chronicle's (Jan. 3) focuses on the failed undergraduate writing programs at Duke and Princeton and recent efforts to improve or replace them, the Chronicle identifies what has been a nationwide trend for some time.
College students generally can't write well, and the fault lies entirely with the universities.
You can read the rest of the article at: http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/comment-ridgley021903.asp

Now I disagree that the fault lies with the university. I believe the problem begins with the elementary school and continues with the high school. The public school system did me no favors in its low standards and simply passing me on to the next grade when, in many cases, I did not have the skills to write that I needed. I hope as I continue to post, my writing will improve. I am curious about how other people feel about their education as it relates to writing. Please share your experiences with me. Please send your experiences to tsrk30@sbcglobal.net