on Writing

“By the time students graduate high school, they should be able to produce more than disorganized self-expression or Internet chat,” said Marilyn Whirry, former national teacher of the year and a member of the board that oversees the national assessment.

In 2003, the National Assessment of Educational Progress released the results of the writing assessment test, which aimed at identification the level of writing proficiency and lexical competence of fourth-, eighth- and twelfth- graders. This report provided the information on how good students could write essays, communicate information and provide arguments.

The results showed that fourth- and eighth- graders have become better writers in comparison with the previous years, whilst, the level of twelfth-graders’ writing proficiency has significantly dropped, “the proportion of 12th-graders who reached at least the basic level dropped from 78 to 74 percent.” Undoubtedly, the declining performance among seniors reflected a deep problem, which every single English teacher faced as a serious challenge.

Perhaps, this situation has slightly changed in the recent years. Though, the bare fact that overwhelming majority of seniors can’t convey well-organized ideas remains. Therefore, the importance of good writing skills have not decreased lately, not… Read More

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