 |
|
Giving a helping hand to your local businesses
|
|
|
|
|
Students Criticised for Poor Writing Skills
It seems many universities are finding it necessary to offer compulsory classes in essay writing for new students. Why? Because despite record numbers of successful A level achievers, many are arriving at university unable to construct a proper essay.
There is growing doubt that the current A level system is successfully preparing young adults for either further education OR the world of work. Governor of the University of Hertfordshire (and former chief inspector of schools), Sir Mike Tomlinson, believes the current A level system is simply not ‘doing the job it set out to do’, adding that extra classes were often needed in order to bring students up to an acceptable level – not just in English but in other academic subjects too.
Poor literacy skills appear to be rife. The University Hull have introduced essay-writing lectures in response to the limited ability of students to construct a coherent essay – a skill required not only for university life but in the world of work that lies beyond. Newcastle University has opened its own writing development centre to help students with their writing.
Of 47 universities that replied to a recent Times survey, 26 said they offered some kind of essay-writing classes for new students. Typically, most common mistakes are simple grammatical and spelling errors – like confusing there and their, or hear and here.
Shadow Education Secretary, David Willetts, commented: “This is a consequence of the way the school curriculum has been broken down into bite-sized chunks. School students don’t have the experience of sitting down and writing their own thoughts in a proper essay.”
| DOWNLOAD | | [ Students Criticised for Poor Writing Skills ] |
EMAIL THIS PAGE
PRINTER FRIENDLY VERSION
|
|