Writing college papers take a particular skill set. From knowing ones audience to proper citation there exists a rubric that is not quite like any other writing form. Writing in college is constantly being rethought and revised in the form of the ongoing scholarly conversation. What is considered good practice today might not still hold true ten years from now. Through an analysis of scholarly writing a few practices seem to stand out as noteworthy across the years.
College writing forces a student to face things that they might prefer not to. To work …show more content…
Especially in a field as well researched as writing. How can a student determine if the idea that they have about a given topic is in the least bit original when they might have spent several weeks reading and researching the topic from dozens of experts and fellow students that have previously explored that topic as thoroughly as one can imagine?
Research of a topic can sometimes lead directly to that focused subject that catches a student writers’ imagination and allows them to free flow with little to no effort, supplies them with a wealth of ideas and inspiration that gives a large body of material that can then be pared down into something as close to perfect as can be achieved. Other times, the shear wealth of information that is accumulated can set one adrift, unable to find a clear starting point that can take lead a student to the end of the road that their project has placed them …show more content…
Not all sources are created equal. A young writer needs to know how to determine if a source is reputable, know if the authorities that they have chosen to quote and cite still have a valid opinion within the field. Students should know what resources to use to find peer reviewed articles and journals. At NSC (Nevada State College), students’ tuition helps to pay for access to a journal database that has many thousands of articles and books on a vast array of topics. The database can be navigated through a simple interface that makes use of a fairly decent database crawler. The crawler allows students to set a wide variety of parameters to narrow their search field down so that they can get information that most closely matches the topic they are researching.
One of the aspects of college writing that students might find most challenging, is writing to please a new audience in every class that they take. Some Professors might prefer a laid back paper with lots of content. Others might be concerned with teaching students a style that pertains to the field that they are studying. Others might be more concerned with style or creativity. Each change can create a new set of circumstances to be anxious about. Taking students out of the newly formed comfort zones that they have created by the end of the previous