Grappling With the Writing Issue : Universities Try Various Tactics to Remedy Deficiencies
Students at even our best universities are not doing enough writing to get the education they deserve. Nobody really knows exactly how serious the writing crisis is. While some isolated studies have been done, there is no very reliable estimate of the exact dimensions of the problem. But all the evidence suggests the situation is perilous.
I asked Ellen Strensky, upper-division coordinator of UCLA Writing Programs, why her university hadn’t done more precise measurement of the writing problem. In the long term, she pointed out, they propose to do just that. For the short term, she said, “I’d suggest that if it’s pouring rain outside, rather than send somebody out to see how heavy the downpour is, we should get on with trying to find some umbrellas.”
The logic is powerful, but the metaphor might be cast too gently. Given the damage likely to be done by lax or nonexistent writing requirements, the issue might be better framed this way: Do the powers that be in our educational establishment have the sense to come in out of the proverbial rain?
Some do.
In 1982, the provost of the Professional Schools at UC Berkeley appointed a task force to study the question of writing. In its 1983 report, the task force concluded “that there is a writing problem in the professional schools and colleges on this campus, that the problem is serious enough to warrant strong and immediate action, and that such action must come from the entire campus.” That statement could be honestly made, with slight amendment, by most college administrations in California.
UCLA has broken out the umbrellas in the form of the upper-division “adjunct course”: a writing tutorial conducted parallel with another course, such as sociology or chemistry.
Andrew Moss and Carol Holder of California State Polytechnic University, Pomona have produced an excellent little book called “Improving Student Writing: A Guidebook for Faculty in All Disciplines.” The examples of fine writing assignments in a variety of subjects are all drawn from assignments actually used by instructors at Cal Poly and California State University, San Bernardino.
For example, Alan Senn and Carol Holder of Cal Poly have devised a series of practical problems in accounting. The student’s task is to write to a client advising him in “specific, concise responses written in non-technical language.” (Would that all accountants had taken this course!) Having drafted their responses, the students work in groups to compare, revise, and evaluate their work.
Articles, Reports Assigned
Ramesh Kumar, a Cal Poly instructor of agricultural engineering, wants his students to figure out just what agricultural engineering is, and to get a feel for some of the opportunities open in the field. So he has them write a three-page article to persuade high school seniors to adopt it as their major.
David Lutz teaches a graduate course in counseling at Cal State San Bernardino. He requires his students to write case reports on their clients, the same kind of report many will have to prepare when they work for counseling agencies.
Betty Cain and Charles Cooper studied writing done by a group of sophomores at UC San Diego and found that most instructors assigned no writing. But from the minority who did, they found innovative and valuable writing assignments in a variety of subjects including psychology, chemistry, literature, Chinese studies, drama, sociology and teacher education.
They concluded: “Faculty should assign more writing and more kinds of writing. A few professors . . . are using writing to engage students fully in learning a discipline. It is possible. Anyone can do it.”
And everyone should do it. Those who don’t aren’t getting the job done.
Tagg is a San Marcos, Calif., free-lance writer and former speech and writing instructor at Cal State Northridge and UC Berkeley.
