Addressing reading
and writing in college
“Students don't know how to write. They
do not understand what they read. They do not read”. These complaints, coming
from teachers, appear throughout the entire education system, starting from
primary education, all the way to college. And the responsibility always seems
to fall to someone else: the primary education institution should have done
something that it didn't, parents should have done something too, etc. And
also, they say, secondary education (or a college entrance course) should train
students to reach higher education already knowing how to write, read and
study.
There is a certain
fallacy in all of this, which implies a simultaneous complaint and rejection to
deal with teaching to read and write in college. The reasoning stems from a
hidden premise, an assumption that, once revealed, turns out to be false. It is
assumed that academic writing and reading are general skills, learned (or not
learned) outside of a disciplinary structure, and not specifically related to
any specific discipline. The idea that reading and writing are separate and
independent from the learning of each discipline is as widespread as it is
questionable. Many researchers state, however, that reading and writing at
college level demands learning a particular form of discursive production and
text consultation for each individual subject, and the possibility of receiving
guidance and support from those who master and participate in these practices.
Without detracting
from the valuable work performed by reading and writing workshops being offered
in the beginning of university courses, it seems that this work is inherently
inadequate. That is, the nature of what must be learned (reading and writing
specific texts for each subject in the context of disciplinary and academic
practices) requires an approach that belongs to the context of each individual
subject. A course in reading and writing, separated from the effective contact
with the materials, methods, and the conceptual and methodological problems of
a particular scientific-professional field serves as a reflexive activity
towards the production and comprehension of texts, but does not prevent the
discursive and strategic difficulties that students meet when they are
challenged to belong to the academic community.
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