The Importance Of Academic Writing

From middle school, and throughout most high schools within the United States, writing is setup as a fill in the blank style process. Additionally, while in high school, formated writing was primarily ingrained within the english program. Rather than thinking critically and analytically when composing some form of writing I was taught to plug information in a pre planned layout and focus heavily upon editing grammar and syntax errors; which, are great skills, but these abilities are not the primary focus of college writing. While I was a upcoming freshmen in college, I was quite confident in my reading and writing abilities; however, I quickly realized the differential gap between high school and collegiate level english. During my Senior in …show more content…
Personally, one of my flaws is revising and drafting effectively. For instance, drafts I wrote in high school focused heavily on revising only grammar and syntax errors. However, in the book, From Inquiry to Academic Writing: A Text and Reader Third Ed. by Stuart Green & April Lidinsky, Green & Lidinsky discuss, that academic drafting and revising involves an in depth review of one 's material to help clarify, develop or improve on the ideas or issues being discussed (Green & Lidinsky, 13-14). Furthermore, the authors also state, “this quite different from simply editing one 's writing for grammatical errors and typos.” (Green and Lidinsky, 14). This highlights the flaw in my writing of only focusing on grammatical revisions; rather than, drafting and revising my main ideas to improve and progress the issues being reviewed. Obviously, academic revising and drafting is an essential skill for college writing, and a habit of mind I need to …show more content…
Still with aid of the book, From Inquiry to Academic Writing: A Text and Reader Third Ed., I now understand what academic habits of the mind I already possess and others I need to improve. For example, during my senior year of high school I wrote various essays which forced me to develop profound inquiries from multiple perspectives about controversial topics. This is one of the habits of mind I am quite familiar and comfortable with. Still, one personal shortcoming of mine is, I do not draft and revise accordingly to the habits of mind. I focus my revisions strictly towards grammar and syntax, when in reality I should be adjusting and revamping my main ideas and points discussed within the essay. Hopefully, by the end of my first year in college english I will have a profound grasp of the concepts of academic