I found this website a while ago and found it to be useful in
planning my writing workshops:
http://www.union.edu/writing/Study/writing_problems.htm
This site provides a thorough list of college professors' most
common complaints about new students.
In a college-prep writing class, I would certainly focus on:
1. Research
- The research process
- Avoiding plagiarism
- Citing sources
- Writing research papers
2. Persuasive Papers
3. Writing oral presentations (including PowerPoint)
4. Literary Analysis
5. The writing process
- **Writing a rough draft quickly**
- Using outlines
- Revising/editing
- Using writing resources (thesaurus, dictionary,
handbooks, writing centers)
6. Important elements of any essay
- Introduction
- Conclusion
- Word Choice
- Audience
- Purpose
- Organization
- Thesis statements
- Direct vs. indirect quotations
- Support using specific examples
- Transitions
- Grammar
- Formatting
- The writing process
7. Test writing with time constraints
This class could get very tedious very quickly, so I would run
it as a workshop, where students could choose their own topics
and write at their own pace. I would also bring in tons of
examples of college-level and professional-quality writing for
my students to read and discuss.
I think this class is a great idea for your college-bound
students. Good luck!
On 5/05/08, annette wrote:
> If you were to craft a college writing course for high
> school students, what would you include in the syllabus?
> Specifically, are there specific areas in which your
> students appear to be deficient where writing at the college
> level is concerned? Thanks for your input!
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