ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on some noteworthy elements of the authority students must develop as writers as they make the transition from Gymnasium to the two universities. Gymnasium is the main avenue to the examination called the Abitur, and only by "making the Abitar" can students attend university. The academic track in most German states takes thirteen years from elementary through Gymnasium levels, so students are at least nineteen years old if they go to university straight from Gymnasium. In studies of students' writing development, the transition from school to university is defined primarily as a matter of novices entering new discourse fields. Gaining authority as a student writer at university is represented as an apprenticeship process in which the composing and knowledge-building strategies of particular academic discourse communities must be mastered. Historically, education in Germany is based on early selectivity and differentiated goal orientation. There are multiple pathways to vocations and degrees through varying lengths and outcomes of schooling.
