what kinds of writing assignments are your college freshmen doing?

[Miss Mousie]

Are reader responses still in vogue?  Literary analysis or other persuasive papers?  Is there any writing in science/math courses?

 

And could you estimate a total page count at this point?

 

My son is still in high school, but I want to keep an eye on what's coming and make sure I'm working on the right wavelength.

 

Thanks for any input!

 

 

[mamakelly]

Honestly, the most writing my son had to do as a college freshman was for his English class. They had to do a few literary analysis papers, and maybe a few others (type escapes me). He wrote maybe 4-5 papers in that semester. The professor had conference times with them, to go over their papers before they were actually due. I thought he did more writing in high school. He may have had a writing or assignment or two in one of his art history classes. Absolutely no writing assignments in math or science classes. He's at San Diego State University.

[swimmermom3]

My son has done/is currently working on two five to six page papers and one 10 page paper. He was thrilled to have earned an "A" on the first one which I believe was for his seminar class in his major.  The seminar class has another paper due and I think the big one is for World Politics.  There was a project for Modern Art History, but I don't know how big that was. I don't know if he had had to write anything for his Intro to Physics class.

 

I would expect that if this is what he has done in two months, that next semester should be even more extensive as he has Writing 106 (all former AP Eng. Lang students) and the first of a two semester research course for his major which is international service.

[regentrude]

There is no writing in math, physics, chemistry - homework is problem solving.

 

DS is taking freshman comp. So far this semester he wrote two argumentative essays; I estimate maybe two more to come.

He takes a lit course; lots of very difficult reading quizzes, four projects per semester - essays, creative writing, video, digital poster, pick forms, one must be essay. This sounds easy but the class is very demanding, lots of reading.

 

DD's humanities courses had something like three longer papers per semester.It was not about the amount of writing, but the depth and level of analysis. Tough stuff. Different school; ours could not pull off the reading list.

 

 Forget the page count. The difficulty is not making page count, but staying within the limit. Short papers are much harder than long ones. 

[MerryAtHope]

I'm sure it depends a lot on what type of degree one is going for. My son is pursuing a BA, likely in psychology or sociology (but undecided at this point).

 

Freshman English had 5 3-5 page essays of varying types (one was persuasive. No reader response or literary analysis papers). He also did a 5-page research paper for Psychology that semester, a 2-page Philosophy paper, and a 6-page History paper. His history class also had 3 essay tests--each one required answering 4 questions with a minimum of 3 paragraphs per essay, 5-6 sentence minimum per paragraph. 

 

Freshman English 2nd semester for him was a semester-long research paper (10+ pages) plus Annotated Bibliographies for 11 or more sources (that ended up around 11 pages), and a mix of shorter assignments. I think he also had a Sociology paper that semester, and some shorter papers for his Ethics class (they did weekly write-ups that were somewhat like a reader-response type of paper, but also had to argue/defend a point at times). He had another history class with essay tests this semester, but no papers in that one.

 

This semester he has speech, and ironically his other classes have involved oral reports as well. He'll be giving 4 or 5 speeches in his speech class. His Humanities class has 5 critical review papers (ranging 3-5 pages typically), and an oral report (which some did as a group project, but he did not). His Natural Hazards and Disasters class (meeting a physical science requirement) doesn't have papers iirc but did have a group project and 3-4 tests that are in all formats (multiple choice, true false, short answer or label maps, and essay questions). He's taking statistics which doesn't have papers but has daily quizzes as well as daily assignments that have to be turned in, and then longer chapter tests. 

 

 

[FaithManor]

Last year Ds at U of MI was wrote about 15 essays, and two papers for English class. The papers were 8-10 pages in length plus the usual bibliography, endnotes or foot notes depending on the requirements, etc.

 

Boy 2 who is a freshman now was placed into a writing class section that was specifically geared to science majors. While he has written maybe one or two essays, a lot of it is technical type writing, and specific formatting of scientific papers and data. I think they will do some standard stuff before the end of the semester just to make sure they are up to speed for non science classes. If memory serves he did write a couple of narratives early on along with those early essays. He doesn't talk much about English, LOL. As my natural science nut who loves math and history, English ranked only slightly above Art History in his list of high school classes "my mother tortured me with".  :D

 

For anthropology, there is a fair amount of on the spot writing. "Summarize the culture of X in during the reign of X" or whatever. I doubt these take the form of essays given they are quite often on the spot writing with short time frames during class in which to be completed. I think the professor does it to emphasize the concept of reading and studying the text assigned BEFORE coming to class since in many high schools students generally do not have to prep before the teacher's "lecture", and I use that term rather loosely given the state of high school education in this country.

[regentrude]

Last year Ds at U of MI was wrote about 15 essays, and two papers for English class. The papers were 8-10 pages in length plus the usual bibliography, endnotes or foot notes depending on the requirements, etc.

 

What do you consider the difference between an "essay" and a "paper"?

 

All of DD's essays involved bibliography and citations.

[MysteryJen]

Most of dd1's writing has been for her Freshman comp class. Some short things and a 4-5 paper due last week. No idea on what else is due. She has to do some writing for Advanced Japanese (but it's in Japanese  :laugh: ). 

I had her write lots last year, and it has definitely been less this year. Still no idea what her major will be, so also no idea what her writing situation will look like next year.

[FaithManor]

What do you consider the difference between an "essay" and a "paper"?

 

All of DD's essays involved bibliography and citations.

The papers were VERY indepth, research papers, highly technical. The essays were more persuasive, less robust in terms of research.

[TammyS]

My son soon has due a 1200 word paper of lit analysis. He told me the question, but I don't remember.  I remember it was on the Odyssey.

 

He called and was so stressed that this paper was coming up, and I was like, "What?  You've read The Odyssey about half a dozen times, you took the Lukeion Project Greek History class AND Advanced Research Writing.  This should be cake!"  I think it was just mental, like, "This is cooollllleeegge" (said in dramatic fashion).

 

Is it wrong that I want to read his paper (just out of curiousity, not to oversee)?

[TechWife]

My son is a sophomore. I have no idea what he is doing right now as far as writing goes and I have no idea what he did last year, other than I know he did a research paper for his freshman seminar class (that much I got from parent orientation). 

[Lori D.]

DSs have said one of things that best helped them have solid writing for college classes was doing a weekly timed essay from a past SAT prompt, as that helped them practice practice practice supporting their opinion and how to structure the flow of the points and examples in a logical way. Also very useful practice for any future in-class essay exams. :)

 

Others have given you good specific answers as to typical amounts and types of college freshman writing. I'll just throw in some general things that are good to practice in high school so they don't come as a surprise or are difficult for college writing:

 

- write enough multi-page papers in high school so that length of the paper feels like no big deal

- write everything in format in high school so becomes second nature -- practice both MLA and APA, as both formats tend to be used in college

- write enough papers with citations (in-text citations and works cited page) so the student feels comfortable with the process of research (esp. using peer reviewed journal articles and similar sources), as well as how/when to cite, quote, and how to embed quotations

 

Make sure you get solid with the basic structure of essay writing that is needed for research papers, reader response papers, persuasive essays, and literary analysis essays:

 

- a complete introduction and thesis in the introductory paragraph (the thesis needs to include the overall topic, your CLAIM (opinion / argument / position / "take" on that claim), and direction (overview of major points that will develop the thesis claim)

- solid argument/points to develop your thesis

- specific evidence, facts, examples, details, etc., to support each point

- commentary for each piece of support that shows how/why that point supports, and "connects the dots" between the evident, the point, and the thesis claim

- transitions, especially between intro and body / body and conclusion, and between different points

- a solid conclusion

 

Other important details about college writing to practice:

- proof-editing!!! -- turn in squeaky-clean papers

- write in the third person -- no first ("I", "me", "we") or second ("you") person

- proper headings in the upper left corner (student name, class/teacher name, date)

- proper heading in the upper right corner for multi-page papers (Lastname - #)

 

 

BEST of luck in your high school writing as prep for college! :) Warmest regards, Lori D.

Edited October 29, 2016 by Lori D.

[mjbucks1]

Ds is a computer science major. He was able to take credit for the entire first year English courses due to his AP Lit Ecam score. So far he has only had to write response type essays to books he has read for an honors class 😄

[FaithManor]

Also, Regentrude, the essays were all written in class, on the spur, sort of like Blue Book exams so did not include bibliographies and such. Very different from the paper writing which was serious research and often included ten sources.

 

Ds was not in a regular freshman writing class though as he was a writing major in the English Honors. I would imagine that the regular classes were different and suspect my middle boy who is a freshman this year is also not on the usual path as he was funneled into a "writing for the sciences" section of freshman English which was required for his major.

 

 

[Crimson Wife]

Oldest DD is taking UC-transferable composition this semester as a DE student. It was the highest level of the 3 intro writing courses that she could've been placed in. The lowest is remedial, the mid-level one satisfies the associate's requirements but does not transfer to the state's 4 year schools, and then the highest satisfies the UC general ed requirements. It uses They Say, I Say, which we actually used in our homeschool. She reads selections (mostly essays) from her course reader and then has to respond in short (3-5 page) papers.

 

Next semester she'll take a follow-on course that's either literary analysis or persuasive rhetoric. Which she takes depends on her intended major (right now she knows she wants to do something language-focused but is undecided). If she changes her mind later on, it's not a huge deal since she can just take the other and the first will just be elective credit.

 

Her biggest challenge is tone and knowing her audience. She's got a B+ in the class and the last essay I read (after the fact), I agree with the professor's comments that it was well-written but the tone was inappropriate for a formal academic paper. It was a critique of an essay in the reader and it would've been good for an online media outlet like Slate, Salon, Daily Beast, etc. but way too snarky for a formal paper. She's 14 and the paper reflected her know-it-all attitude. We talked about adjusting tone for one's intended audience but a big reason that she's taking her core courses at CC is because she doesn't want to listen to me. So who knows if she'll actually take my advice.

[G5052]

My oldest is a sophomore accounting major at a local community college in their honors program.

 

In freshman English, they had four papers a semester, ranging from a 2-page person narrative to a 10-page research paper. The grading seemed reasonable for that level, and he said that they were actually easier overall than what he had done in high school.

 

In his BUS 101 class, he had weekly position paper due of about 1 1/2 pages long. He had to have three references, Internet was fine.

 

Each of his accounting classes has had a 2-3 page essay on an ethical issue.

 

He's currently taking international business class and has two 5-page research papers.

[Miss Mousie]

Thanks, all.  I am so glad I asked!  I was working with what now seems like outdated info - that reader response was still common and frequent - so I (and DS!) will gladly back away from those and change our focus to mostly short argumentative papers and a few longer research papers.

 

We have also been doing timed SAT prompts and untimed U of C application essays, both of which have been fun and productive.  We'll continue those.

 

[Miss Mousie]

 

 Forget the page count. The difficulty is not making page count, but staying within the limit. Short papers are much harder than long ones. 

 

I agree with this for college, for sure.  Many high school writers, though, struggle with saying enough - fully developing their topic or argument.  So far, DS has not fallen into the habit of "padding" for page count, so I'm not worried about that.  Still, I have been giving DS page limits on some things; the U of C application questions, for example, can't be more than 2 pages.  That seems to be working well for him.

 

In the next couple of years I might assign, say, a 5-page paper, and after he submits that I'll then have him cut it down to 3.  It is indeed a very useful skill to write concisely!

[Starr]

A little off topic but my dc found many classes had a mix of writing and oral presentations with power point or other media presentations.

[TravelingChris]

No writing in math courses.  Limited writing on exams in her physics courses and probably her computer science courses.  Lots of writing in her mandatory writing intensive class, her history class has some papers due, and last year her freshman seminar class (a joint history and literature class) had quite a number of papers too.  Part of the reason dd decided to go to a LAC was because she would get a broader education, not only science and math with just a perfunctory freshman comp course.  

 

My older dd is finishing her criminal justice BA online and she has had a lot of writing.  The usual respond to someone else's comment requirements and her own comments on readings but also just about every course required a research paper.  She didn't take literature courses at all.  For her, being an online student, she had to write papers for her science course too.

[G5052]

A little off topic but my dc found many classes had a mix of writing and oral presentations with power point or other media presentations.

 

This is a good point. I would send them off with basic PowerPoint skills as well.

 

Mine take the required computer class for nearly all degrees in my state as part of dual enrollment, and it covers Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and Access in detail.

 

That's good too, if you have that available.

[Miss Mousie]

A little off topic but my dc found many classes had a mix of writing and oral presentations with power point or other media presentations.

 

 

This is a good point. I would send them off with basic PowerPoint skills as well.

 

Mine take the required computer class for nearly all degrees in my state as part of dual enrollment, and it covers Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and Access in detail.

 

That's good too, if you have that available.

 

Sigh, yes.  I have DS doing some PP presentations this year.  Personally, I hate PP, but DS did a terrific job with his first one, including avoiding pitfalls of PP presentations (reading the slides to the audience, etc.).  I'll admit I was impressed that he included animation! 

 

G5052, I'm not familiar with Access.  What does that do?

[quark]

I only skimmed pps and I don't think I saw something like what DS's history professor at the CC is doing this semester. Granted it's an online course and perhaps why it follows this format. DS has to write one minimum 300-word forum post a week in response to a selected prompt from the prof and also comment (same word limit) on another student's response. That's 2 responses for a total of about 600 words (but prof has said he will penalize students who write just at word limit!) every week. For midterms, he had to submit a minimum 1,500-word essay and he will need to do the same for the finals. He will also need to submit a review of one of the history texts the prof is using this semester along with his final essay.

 

So, every week that's...

At least 300-word forum post on a given prompt

At least 300-word response to another student

 

Twice this semester...

At least 1,500-word essay

 

Once this semester...

A book review on one of the history texts (DS is looking forward to this because he loves commenting on bias)

 

All the essays (except book review I guess) require research and citations (Chicago style).

 

He also has 2 other writing heavy classes (CC and AP level). It's a writing intensive semester!

[Lang Syne Boardie]

My son is a religion and philosophy major at a private LAC. He says that some of his professors assign long papers, but the best professors assign shorter papers and require more precision and focus. It's harder to write 6-9 pages for Professor K than it is to write 12 to 24 pages for Professor C.

 

For the honors courses within his major, he's writing constantly. He frequently says that Tapestry of Grace curriculum was perfect training for what he's doing: the depth of analysis, scope of each paper, various styles of writing assigned, and requirement for excellence in grammar, syntax, and logic are all very familiar from his TOG days. There's just far more of it in college.