I like the notion that Emig brings up as to how writing helps in one’s learning. She points out that “Writing is learned behavior,” and that this learned behavior deals with “creating” something ie. a paper that is focused (123).I see that writing is important because it demands that the writer be able to articulate his/herself properly, be able to read what he/she is writing, and be able to make sense of it when he/she is reading it. But, here is where I see a problem, a problem that we have been dealing with since the beginning of this course. The problem of poor writing, as I read the two essays last week from the 12 readers assignments, I kept wondering how I would help students become better writers. If writing is so important, and fundamental in one’s ability to learn and to go onto higher education, how is it that we have so many “bad” writers???


As we had our discussion on Wednesday, I kept thinking that the essays were from high school students, until one of my group members pointed out that it could possibly be from a college student in a remedial English course. Then Dr. Cauthen confirmed that the essays were from college students. This notion that poor writers are graduating from some U.S. high schools scares me. How is it that an 18 year old is able to graduate high school and sing-up to go to war, drive a car, and take charge of his/her own life (and now I’m ranting) without being able to write a paragraph that meets the standards of a high school graduate?? If what Emig says is true, that “Writing serves learning uniquely because writing as process-and product possesses a cluster of attributes that correspond uniquely to certain powerful learning strategies.” Then why is it that we still have crappy writers in our universities and colleges?