SOURCE: Carol Zoref, Writing Coordinator at Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, N.Y., accomplished writer and essayist
Newswise — As the new school year gets off to a start, students, teachers, counselors, and parents are thinking more about writing than perhaps they ever have. The addition of the writing section of the SAT is partly responsible. Additionally, the recognition that employers are looking to the schools and colleges of the nation to produce competent writers in nearly all professions is sparking a new respect for the written word. Finally, the growing presence of the internet—which relies almost exclusively on text—as a medium of choice for news, views, and communication gives students a greater understanding of its relevance in their lives.
Carol Zoref, Writing Coordinator at Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, N.Y., says that the new SAT exposes the deficiency of public school writing standards and puts pressure on school systems to do a better job of teaching writing. "It is unlikely that they will have a chance to do this unless there is a paradigm shift on what it means to teach and learn writing," Zoref says.
"Schools need to think about writing in a completely different way and teach it across the curriculum, not just in English classes. They need to develop new ways of configuring classes so that teachers of subjects other than English incorporate writing into their classroom assignments. When this happens, writing will become a more natural part of students' lives."
"There is no single model to which students should aspire," she says. "But pressuring students to write to mediocre, tedious, and predictable standards is a disservice to them." About the proliferation of writing courses for college-bound students, be they application essay workshops run by guidance counselors or comprehensive creative and expository writing programs run by college professors, Zoref says they " are most useful when they insist that only the students' own true voices will do."
Zoref has addressed the problem with high school teachers and college counselors eager to break out of the confines of an exam model for demonstrating progress and understanding of subject matter. At Sarah Lawrence College where she is writing coordinator, she is responsible for helping students develop their writing skills in all their courses.
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