The differences between college writing and high school writing
5. Interpretation.
Unlike high school book reports, college papers require in-depth interpretation of readings at hand. The term close reading is one that doesn’t often come into play in a high school environment, though in college, close reading is the expected norm. Close reading is the careful reading of a text that considers everything from syntax to structure to, basically, everything about the language down to the minutiae of a single word. Not only are college students expected to do close readings of texts, but they are also expected to interpret the text — not just describe what happens. College papers are very much “show, don’t tell.” College writers don’t repeat synopses of chapters in their papers; they interpret the text and only write, in their papers, about ideas, not action.
4. Informed Argument.
College writing always requires an argument. An argument requires a strong thesis statement. Check out our blog entry on writing strong thesis statements to learn how to focus your paper around a strong argument. College papers seek to prove something through a series of though-out examples and analyses. Professors are interested in seeing how you think, and whether your writing is thoughtful and considered. By examining the argument of your paper, and the ways that you back it up, professors are really looking to see the way your mind works in structuring and attacking a problem and arriving at a solution, via the written word.
3. Specifics.
When I first started writing college papers, they were often returned to me with “what does this mean?” or “can you give me specifics?” written in red ink on the margins. Soon, I learned that the more specific and to-the-point my language was, the higher I scored on my papers and the better my papers were. Being specific is important for many reasons, the most important of which is that specific language shows that you’re not BS’ing assignments, something your high school teachers might let you get away with. College professors want to see that you know exactly what you’re talking about. The operative word is ‘exact’. College professors want you to say what you mean, and they won’t tolerate any fluff.
2. Topicality.
College writing is centered around questions of interest to the academic community. In college writing, it’s very unlikely that you can get away with general and almost meaningless topics like “characterization” or “symbolism”. College professors want to see you really analyze the texts you read in a meaningful and scholarly way, and they respond well when you write on topics of academic interest. Instead of discussing the use of symbolism in The Inferno, which has already been written on extensively for going on five hundred years now, perhaps a more useful or interesting topic would be on the syntax of time and temporality within the text, for instance. Or a comparison of The Inferno with a modern text that shows marked similarities and differences, and what that says about the text.
1. Expectations.
The crucial difference between high school and college writing is your professor’s expectations. College papers, simply put, are judged by a much higher standard than anything you’ve probably witnessed in high school. You will, therefore, need to try much harder in college. Often, humanities courses in college are judged on papers alone, so papers are worth far more in terms of your overall grade once you get to college. You will have to start papers earlier, think harder about what you’re going to say, do more research, and write better. You will not just be judged on the quality of your ideas alone, but also on your presentation of those ideas, so you will be expected to have impeccable grammar, spelling, and organization. It may sound difficult and overwhelming, but being forced to write in an academic environment is one of the best methods of not just teaching you how to write, but also of teaching you how to think. After four years of writing in a college environment, I feel that both my writing and my critical thinking has improved, though not without hard work and a lot of frustration. Luckily, it all pays off in the end.
