ABSTRACT
College faculty live in hope that their students will be good writers, which should not be a terribly unrealistic expectation given the 12 years of primary and secondary education that the typical first-year college student has just completed. Writing is an important element of academic success for undergraduate and graduate students alike (Abbate-Vaughn, 2007; Alter & Adkins, 2006). College-educated individuals are expected to analyze and synthesize complex information and express facts coherently and logically using a writing style that is grammatically and stylistically appropriate (Alter & Adkins, 2006). Indeed, the ability to communicate through writing is considered a threshold skill for hiring and advancement in the business and professional world (National Commission on Writing, 2004). Many college faculty complain about the near epidemic of poor writing skills in both undergraduate and graduate programs (Alter & Adkins, 2006; Holtzman et al., 2005; Manzo, 2003; Rawson et al., 2005; Whitehead, 2002). On average, 4 out of 10 first-year college students are required to take a remedial writing course (Ezarik, 2003). One survey found that even near the conclusion of their undergraduate education, only 11% of college seniors were able to write at a “proficient” level that included the ability to recognize redundancy, discriminate between correct and incorrect constructions, and recognize the most effective revision of a sentence (Association of American Colleges and Universities, 2005). Inadequate writing skills do not come without a cost. A nationwide survey revealed that states spend an estimated $221 million each year to improve writing skills for state employees (National Commission on Writing, 2005).
