Persuasive Essay (Academic Writing in College)
We live in a global society in this 21st century where communication with almost everyone in the world is possible. The spread of English as an international language has made it more significant for people working with colleagues, clients, and partners from other regions to understand each other. Everybody must be able to use English for work to meet the demands of modern employers (Coventry 2). Learners can only be equipped with the required sophisticated English when they progress with the English classes up to college levels. It is therefore of great essence to take academic English courses writing to college levels. Besides, everybody should be equipped with great writing skills to be successful. This cannot be realized with the basic and elementary English taught in high schools. Writing in English is also of great significance as it is a form of written communication.
While some students may overlook the necessity for college level English writing based on the already acquired language, they may not realize their weakness in English language. According to Gottschalk and Hjortsho (4), some students are still weak in their comprehension on how to structure essays; others still produce sketchy work with significant grammatical problems, while other writings may lack comma splices, sentence fragments, and subject-verb agreements. The assumption is that the already acquired English knowledge is sufficient for professional advancement. Furthermore, most of the students who progress to professional levels usually pass the high school English language, as their score in tests such as SAT is usually high. Besides this, they may already be equipped with broader vocabularies and more sophisticated sentences, which facilitate production of comments that are more incisive on class discussions. What these students may overlook is that high school writing underscores the objective of understanding the lessons. Advanced writing, on the other hand, demands argument by making a critical judgment of the readings. Evidence of these judgments must be fluid all through the essay. To generate evidence, students are usually compelled to go back to the initial source or research in other literary articles on the same subject. Weaving proofs that bear initial claim offer the writing strong basis and better grades.
Opponents against pursuit of academic writing in college believe that high school English is sufficient for life experiences and career prospects. This clique of students affirm that high school English enables people from different backgrounds especially those from non-English speaking countries easily grasp the concepts in other subjects, which are highly essential in life. The opponents assert that high school English significantly enables its learners to become familiar with career subjects.
Besides, there are numerous AP high school English courses, which are offered by online tutoring websites that enables learners save time and money when learning English (Acadsoc 1). Such online classes are not available for college students and in addition, they are usually very costly. Therefore, the opponents affirm that learning words, concepts, and English content is fair at high school level than in college level. Furthermore, the online classes are said to offer comprehensive classes on development of vocabulary, grammar, and basics of the language. Since the online courses are offered at personal levels, students can attend regular high school classes during the day and take the online classes whenever they are free. Through this mode, learners find it easier to complete their online classes earlier than their regular classes (Acadsoc 1). Moreover, the numerous tests, assignments, and examinations offered online enable learners practice their English vocabulary and become equipped on their desirable levels. These tests additionally enable students advance in new typical and essential words making them become proficient in the English language.
According to Mosley (58), high school writing is formulaic. This implies that both teachers and students follow a formula to generate a product since too little time is typically available to grade every student. The result is that both teachers and students quickly learn how to derive the points quickly and organize their ideas logically. College writing, on the other hand, focuses more on the ideas of the students while at the same time depicts individuality. Therefore, college writing is different from high school writing since it illustrates aspects of sophistication, eloquence, and application of rich vocabulary. These, Mosley notes are the features of academic writing (59). The author goes on the mention that high school writing is much more predictable as writings take place to conform. The author goes on to affirm the need to concentrate on academic writing since it is a mark of preparation for specialized writing tasks such as laboratory report, and case studies (Gottschalk and Hjortshoj 4). The authors mention that students barely acquire sufficient time for writing practice at the high school level and hence they are not acquainted with the grammatical jargon.
English as an international language allows billions of people to communicate all over the world. This aspect is outlined clearly in the United Nations Organization where English is among the six official languages of the United Nations. Writing well implies that everybody is able to convey thoughts, ideas, and facts in a simple and clear language. This art of writing is missing from the high school English lessons but equipped at college and professional levels. It is therefore of paramount significance that everybody should progress with the English language in college for effective internal and external communication in English.
Personal intellect, learning, and work are judged in the workplace, and community on the primary basis of writing. It is through writing that an individual expresses the personality. Writing makes thinking visible since it is portable and permanent. Through writing, people easily move among facts, inferences, and opinions in a clear manner. Writing promotes personal ability, assists others to obtain feedback, and fosters the personal ability to defined complicated positions. In the course of writing, people obtain the permit to evaluate the adequacy of their argument, understand how truth is established in given discipline, and equip users with communication and thinking skills for effective participations in democracy. Sophisticated English require a development of core skills in fluency, reading, writing, and listening, in addition to the application of linguistic principles. Furthermore, being equipped with college English skills enables learners to acquire skills that are relevant to their industry while at the same time enhances their general English skills.
In college, students are exposed to different writing styles for professional endeavors. While the aspiring professional may not know, most of the workplace communication takes the form of writing. Important to note is that it is necessary to have a broad vocabulary as it equates to better communication and confidence when speaking. When students become equipped with new terminologies and exposure in college, they obtain a head start of what they will experience in the field. Moreover, students are expected to write numerous essays all through their collegiate careers. These assignments are for a variety of purposes. Some of these essays are written from personal experiences while others require additional research. These are some of the ways through which these students acquire sophisticated English for expression in their professional world. The acquired knowledge on academic writing skills additionally translates to any career field since most of the professional works require some aspects of writing on the job. This makes an essential skill to acquire while in college, as job tasks on writing is countless.
It is paramount for students to acquire college writing skills. Students with good writing abilities are able to score higher, as they are able to convey their knowledge in written examination. In relation to this, other forms of writing such as technical writing are necessary for professional courses such as engineering. Science students, on the other hand, are expected to equip themselves with research skills for research papers, which should be free of grammatical and spelling errors. Consequently, students who do not pursue English in high levels find it challenging to accomplish such tasks properly. Good writing skills are therefore necessary for acquiring any forms of jobs, especially after completing college. Employers in these days prefer working with employees who have good verbal and writing abilities, for effective communication.
It is important to learn how to write quality academic writing to formulate arguments. Discussions taking place verbally are often scattered and loosely organized. In writing, points ought to flow logically to accumulate a cohesive and general argument. Academic writing, therefore, demands logical thinking skills and enables users to take related thoughts and construct them for good communication. In academic writing, logical thinking skills are automatically developed. It is necessary for students to delve deeper into their thoughts to convey coherent messages.
In conclusion, it is of great essence to take academic English courses writings since high school English is not sufficient. Even though a student may have Basic English it is still mandatory to enhance this language for future professions. Besides, high school English is quite simple as compared to the college and advanced levels. Since teachers do not fully concentrate on enabling students perfect on this language, some of the students may still be weak in their comprehension on how to structure essays, produce sketchy work with significant grammatical problems, write essays without including comma splices, sentence fragments, and subject-verb agreements. Conversely, some students assume that the already acquired knowledge is sufficient for professional advancement. This becomes more conspicuous after they pass tests such as SAT. They fail to realize that by taking academic English courses, they become equipped with the ability to communicate well with others in everyday life, enhance their writing skills, resulting in success in college.
Works Cited
Acadsoc. Importance of High School Vocabulary. 2014. Retrieved from
http://support.acadsoc.com/importance-of-high-school-vocabulary-6-179-631.html
Coventry Schools. Why Should I Take Advanced Placement English? 2016. Available at
www.coventryschools.org/Downloads/Why%20take%20AP%20English.pdf
Gottschalk, Katherine, and Keith Hjortshoj. The Elements of Teaching Writing: A Resource for
Instructors in All Disciplines. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2004
Mosley, Mustenikova Milka. The Truth about High School English. Canton, Georgia. 2005