Chapter 11

On page 307 the book talks about students who leave high school and are not well prepared for the writing demands of the work force and college life.  When I first read this my thoughts went back and forth.  One one hand i feel that I was well prepared for college writing, and on the other hand i feel like some of the writing i did in high school was no where near as complicated as some of the things i've done in college.  Then, I feel like writing comes naturally to me for some random reason, or maybe i was just well taught. Also, i've thought that maybe i was prepared in high school, to learn more in depth information in college.  Maybe that is why students who go into the job force are not able to write as well as expected by the employers.  As you can tell.  I think there is more than just one option here.  It greatly depends and maybe some students are well prepared by their high school for what they are about to learn in college.

Honestly, as i continued to read on page 308 i was blown away.  The writing demands of the work place are things that as an adult about to graduate college, i would be intimidated to do.  I think it is the professionalism of the writing that intimidates me the most.  Having my audience be superiors, and knowing that my letter needed to be very professional and error free would freak me out.  I can see how students coming straight from high school would be very unprepared and feel inadequate for what they are required to do.

There were several sections where Conley was discussing how to effectively teach writing to students.  On page 314 the chapter talks about guiding students writing.  I think the suggestions listed here are very good and effective.  Some of them are quick write, brainstorming, and stop and list.  These are also all strategies i feel we have used in this class in the past week or so as we have started the writing process ourselves.  Even in our class, as college students, i feel like the strategies are great for helping us get started and thinking on many different levels about what we want to write.  I can see how if this is beneficial for us, it would be very beneficial for students in high schools.