June 29, 2009

The $5,000 Approach to Teaching Writing

Christophe vorlet for the chronicle

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Christophe vorlet for the chronicle

By Bob Kunzinger

Almost every day I hear my fellow professors complain about their students' poor writing on papers and tests. The papers lack depth, my colleagues say, and reflect a lack of commitment to good writing. Having read countless examples of such sloppy college writing over the past two decades myself, I've identified the main cause. Weak writing has little to do with students' innate writing ability, even less with how much time they spend working on their papers, and less yet with how