My high school students and their parents often ask me, as their academic coach, about choosing classes. As they contemplate whether to enroll in honors and AP classes, they want input about which courses will “read” well on college applications. While I always encourage parents to listen to their child, to allow their child’s interests to guide their choices, and to consult their college counselor, I also emphasize that there is no more important college readiness course than a rigorous English class, and, in my opinion, that is true for one primary reason: writing.
The ability to write well is arguably the most important college readiness marker. Despite growing global computerization, our students are still required to communicate via writing daily: in social media through emails, posts, texts, and blogs and in school through essays, assessments, and papers. While the hand-written letter or thank you note may largely be a thing of the past, the ability to compose a well-structured, articulate piece distinguishes a middling student from an exceptional one.
Every selective college of which I am aware prioritizes a strong background in writing instruction. Even engineering schools want to admit students who write well; therefore, not surprisingly, these colleges prefer to find the successful completion of AP English, or its equivalent, on an applicant’s transcript. Of course, not every student is prepared to enroll in the most rigorous English class available at his or her high school, but every student who seeks an outstanding college curriculum should aspire to improve his or her writing craft and should seek to demonstrate this interest.
Which skills does your child need to demonstrate to ensure college readiness?
1. A growing facility with grammar and vocabulary;
2. An understanding of structure and how to build a logical argument; and
3. A developing voice.
How can you help your child improve his or her writing?
1. Review the rubric and prompt of any writing assignment with your child to ensure that your child has a planned thesis that both answers the question asked and meets the expectations of the assignment. One of the most frequent mistakes I see among my students is the failure to answer the question posed or the failure to fulfill the assignment’s requirements.
2. Insist that your child prepare an outline. My students often want to dismiss outlining as a step that merely slows them down. To the contrary, good writing requires good planning.
3. Advise your child to seek feedback, preferably from his or her target audience but minimally from an informed source. High school English teachers understandably do not have the time to pre-read every student’s work, but their feedback before writing begins can be extremely instrumental. In my experience, peer edits should be considered and followed with extreme caution.
4. Encourage your child to write a first draft and then have him or her read that draft out loud, slowly, to himself or herself. Ask your child to evaluate whether the writing answers the prompt, meets the rubric’s expectations, and flows.
5. Then, as the parent, get out of the way! In most cases, parents should only guide their children in the process above – not in the writing. Your child needs to develop his or her own voice and to learn from mistakes. Your child is better served, in almost all cases, to get further feedback from school mentors. The best English instruction often incorporates the opportunity to rewrite and to learn from drafting missteps.
6. Otherwise, as a parent, encourage reading, for a love of reading cultivates a love of writing; and, perhaps needless to say, encourage writing for pleasure.
With the holidays arriving next week, should you need a last-minute gift for your child, consider either a journal (fun and beautiful options abound) or a good writing guide (I recommend How to Write Anything: A Complete Guide by Laura Brown).
Happy holidays! Happy writing!