This is sad. " "Students are doing less and less writing in every class on every level," said Jerry Martin, president of the Washington-based American Council of Trustees and Alumni, a national education group. "As a result, students aren't learning to write, and without that knowledge, they can't think well. Students can't organize their thoughts in a logical and persuasive way." By not writing research papers, students become ill-prepared for the demanding college work, said Bradford Wilson, a lecturer in politics at Princeton University. The trend has become so bad that even some of the nation's top colleges, such as Princeton, have had to add introductory writing courses so incoming freshmen could learn the basics of research writing, Mr. Wilson said". http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20021122-30648981.htm
My source at the University of Alabama says... 'As' in history are given in only about 12% of intro history courses, while in English, about 70% receive As and Bs. The cause? Apparently the introduction of a "No Credit" option for any who would otherwise receive Ds or Fs. http://www.alabamascholars.org/page13.html The rot, it appears, starts elsewhere. --Orson
Quoting from referenced web site: "The survey of 400 high school teachers found that 81 percent of them never assign history papers that are 20 pages long, or 5,000 words. In addition, 62 percent never assign papers that are 15 pages long, or 3,000 words." I never had to write a paper more than 5 pages long (except for thesis) thru high school or colleges (three degrees), neither did my children or my wife. Thank goodness.
