Students Must Write

A Guide to Better Writing in Coursework and Examinations

Robert Barrass

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2005
• ISBN:
  9781134245529
• Edition: 3
• Topic: Pedagogía
• Subtopic: Educación general

The third edition of this well-respected guidewill helpstudents of all subjects to write more clearly and more effectively, withvaluable advice on how to:

• make good notes
• find information, cite sources and list references
• write better coursework assignments
• achieve higher grades in tests and examinations
• prepare a well-organised dissertation, long essay, term paper, project report or thesis
• write effective letters and applications.

Written by an esteemed author with many years of experience of helping students improve key writing skills, thistext also includes straightforward guidance on word choiceand the new challenges and opportunities afforded by the use of computers. Exercises are also providedfor students to put the theories into practice, eitherindividually or in group work.

1 Judged by your writing

If your long-term objective in study is to achieve your full potential, and obtain the highest grades of which you are capable, consider three reasons why many students underachieve.

1. Some lack motivation, and do not work hard enough.
2. Many attend classes and work hard, but have poor time management skills and do not study effectively.
3. More do study effectively and know their work, yet underachieve because they pay insufficient attention to improving their ability to communicate their thoughts in writing.

Effective writing as the basis for success

Writing is important in studying all subjects, and in all professions. Only by writing well can you give a good account of yourself as a student or when applying for employment, or in a career when writing e-mails, memoranda, letters, instructions and reports. It is by your writing that many people judge you (see Table 1.1).

If you are to achieve your full potential as a student, and progress in your chosen career, the ability to express yourself clearly, concisely and persuasively in writing is an essential skill that you should be trying to develop.

As a student you write with a pen for several hours each day, making notes in lectures, practical classes, seminars, tutorials and private study. And you write using a word processor when completing important coursework assignments, project reports and theses. You score marks for all your written work, both indirectly if you make good notes when studying and directly if you communicate your thoughts effectively in assessed coursework, tests and examinations.

Table 1.1 Judged by your writing

It is mainly by the quality of your writing that assessors find out what you know and how much you understand, and judge the quality of your thinking. In any assessed written work, if two students were otherwise equal in ability and intelligence you would expect the one who was the better able to convey thoughts effectively in writing to score the higher marks. So it is important to recognise, from the start of your course, that your final grades will depend not only on your knowledge and understanding of your subject but also on how well you are able to convey this knowledge and understanding in writing.

All learning depends on the understanding and effective use of language; and the purpose of all education should be to help students develop the ability to think critically, and to express their thoughts effectively whether speaking or writing. They should also be encouraged to read critically – thinking about what they read – because reading, supported by observation and conversation, is the key to knowledge. There is nothing new in these assertions.

For example, the report of a government committee of inquiry into the teaching of English in England (Newbolt, 1921) emphasised: (a) that all children must be taught to speak well before they can learn to write well; (b) that English, as the instrument of thought for English-speaking people, provides the basis for teaching all subjects; (c) that every teacher, teaching in English, is a teacher of English [because we learn by example, as well as by specific instruction]; (d) that education should be ‘guidance in the acquiring of experience’; and (e) that the appreciation of English literature is important not only for the pleasure to be derived from reading but also as ‘the lasting communication of experience’ and as a good influence on the reader’s own use of the language.

These thoughts were summarised by George Sampson, a member of the Newbolt committee, and 25 years later by Dorothy L. Sayers and by Eric Partridge.

English . . . includes and transcends all subjects. It is for English people the whole means of expression, the attainment of which makes them articulate and intelligible human beings, able to inherit the past, to possess the present and to confront the future. It is English in this sense that we must teach our children all day long, at all stages of their school life.

. . . every teacher is a teacher of English because every teacher is a teacher in English.

English for the English, George Sampson (1925)

Modern education concentrates on teaching subjects, leaving the method of thinking, arguing and expressing one’s conclusions to be picked up by the [scholars as they go along . . . Teachers] are doing for their pupils the work which the pupils themselves ought to do. For the sole true end of education is simply this: to teach [people] how to learn for themselves; and whatever instruction fails to do this is effort spent in vain.

The Lost Tools of Learning, Dorothy L. Sayers (1948)

If only teachers [of all subjects] would teach their pupils to think out every problem, and insist that all questions be answered thoughtfully and clearly, this salutary and indeed indispensable discipline and exercise of the mind would immensely improve the pupil’s speech and writing, not merely in the English class but also in every other, both at school and outside.

English: A Course for Human Beings, Eric Partridge (1949)

A further 25 years later the need to teach English Language across the curriculum was also the main point made in the report of another government inquiry into the teaching of English (Bullock, 1975); and its relevance to the study of all academic subjects was further emphasised in the 1980s in examiners’ reports on the written work of 18-year-old students.

English language and literature

Some students wrote with charm and intelligence, displaying a love of books and of scholarship. Their work, written in clear, direct and simple English, was a delight to read. Others with limited practice in essay, précis, summary and comprehension techniques were easily identified. And there were also candidates who displayed in their writing a contempt for our language.

Most candidates should spend more time thinking about the meaning of the question and the words used, and should plan their work. They would then be able to write a considered answer. With such thought, the standard of answers would be raised.

English law

Many candidates took no notice of the actual question set. Instead they wrote all that they knew about the subject and thus not only wasted valuable time but also demonstrated that they did not have a proper understanding of the subject.

Too many candidates fail to appreciate that a lawyer cannot function without a command of accurate punctuation and grammar. Bad English means bad law.

Engineering science

Particular attention is drawn to the deplorable English of some candidates . . . poor sentence construction . . . lack of lucidity . . . dreadful spelling. This is a pity because in both higher education and industry great importance is attached to comprehension and communication skills.

History

The best scripts revealed an excellent knowledge and understanding of the topic discussed; and an ability to write an organized, fluent and cogent answer.

Time spent on teaching the art of writing is not time wasted. Even weaker candidates obtain higher marks after they have been properly taught to plan their answers and then to write concisely, intelligibly and in an orderly manner.

Everyone is capable of self-improvement. Good candidates can do better. Inevitably, clever candidates do not do as well as they should if they have not been properly trained in examination techniques.

Geography

The best candidates showed skill and perception when interpreting questions and writing appropriate answers. But some students with a great fund of knowledge do not achieve their full potential because they are unable to make intelligent use of their material. If they are to score high marks, students must learn how to answer the different types of questions they encounter in examinations and they must acquire sound skills in composition and in basic examination techniques.

Unfortunately, there are many candidates who fail to benefit from their knowledge of geography because mistakes in grammar and spelling render them incapable of expressing themselves unambiguously.

Even the most able 18-year-olds, who sit scholarship examinations, do not write as well as they should. Consider, for example, the following comments from an examiner’s report on a scholarship paper in biology.

All answers included much irrelevant information.

Looseness of expression indicated lack of careful thought.

Very few answers were comprehensive.

Even when they knew the answer many candidates had difficulty in bringing facts together in an effective order.

Many candidates had the knowledge but were unable to express themselves.

The best English is to be expected from students of English literature but, in their report on a paper on critical appreciation, examiners noted that standards of punctuation and spelling, as well of grammar, are declining. ‘Even quite good candidates spell words as though they have never seen them before, varying their spelling from one occasion to the next. This decline in literacy, now very marked, should be a matter of great concern.’

Examiners’ findings that even clever school-leavers have difficulty with spelling, punctuation and grammar, and in selecting, arranging and expressing their thoughts, are one source of concern about the way English is taught in schools. Another is the complaints of employers about the poor communication skills of students leaving schools, colleges and universities, who in their places of work write e-mails, letters, memoranda, instructions and reports expressed in English that is incomprehensible, or in which the misuse of words and of emphasis result in misunderstandings, costly mistakes and accidents.

Yet another government report on the teaching of English Language in British schools (Kingman, 1988) addressed these concerns and, like the earlier reports (Newbolt, 1921 and Bullock, 1975), recommended changes in teacher training and in English teaching, in an attempt to ensure: (a) that all teachers have some explicit knowledge of the facts and uses of the English language and are able to help their pupils to develop the ability to write clearly and accurately in standard English, and (b) that their pupils are familiar with such terms as pronoun, verb, sentence, full stop, comma and paragraph, can understand their meaning, and can use this understanding both when they or their teachers talk about the language and when they need to recognise and correct faults in their own work (Kingman, 1988).

Whereas in the 1920s employers were complaining about deficiencies in use of English by 14-year-old school-leavers (Newbolt, 1921), in the 1970s and 1990s they were complaining of the poor English of 16- to 18-year-old school-leavers (Bullock, 1975; Kingman, 1988), and of those aged 21, or more, leaving colleges and universities (Dearing, 1997; Mullen, 1997). Dearing found ‘no consensus among employers as to the main deficiencies [in key skills] of people entering employment, from higher education’, but about a quarter complained of inadequate communication skills.

Regrettably, after more than 12 years at school, many students starting courses in higher education are clever enough to understand their work and yet unable to communicate their knowledge, understanding and ideas effectively. They need help in developing their communications skills (Wojtas, 1981). Many need help with their writing more than they need further instruction in their chosen subjects.

So teachers of all subjects, in further and higher education as well as in schools, should play their part in helping their students improve their use of words. Students are unlikely to appreciate how important writing is, in studying their subjects, and in any career based on their studies, if it is only the teachers of English at school and the tutors respons...