what is "college-level" writing?

That's the title of today's anthology.  Unlike yesterday's, it isn't doing quite what I'd hoped it would.  I thought I was reading it for the faculty development extravaganza I'm leading in a couple of weeks for the folks who will teach in our first-year seminar program in the fall.  It turns out that, instead, I'm reading it more for my fall course.

Specifically, I realized that in a unit in the course on "Readers (Expectations & Feedback)," I'm going to have the students read some of the essays and then write their own reflective piece in which they try to answer the titular question.  (I'm really interested to see their answers.)

As fodder and also models, I'll be sure to give them some of the student-authored piece that the anthology includes, particularly the one by Amanda Winalski, who graduated in 2004 from Temple.  After placing out of Temple's first-year writing requirement, Amanda found herself rewarded for the style of her writing until, in a linguistics class, the professor slammed her for not addressing the assignment. 

She was shocked and mortified; after reflecting on the experience, she offers her insights:

A college writer must anticipate the reader’s response.  Once the writer has conquered the grammar check and can confidently justify using the passive voice or splitting an infinitive, he or she begins to demonstrate a level of comprehension and application that I would consider characteristic of the college-level label.  Those who bow before the grammar check and heed every suggestion—whether because they doubt their abilities, overestimate the power of the computerized rulebook, or think the reader will use any grammatical error as evidence of ineptitude or justification for a grade reduction—can only improve their writing by first tending to their confidence.

There does not (yet) exist a checklist for the requirements that compose college-level writing.  The transition from high school to university writing is not as simple as the memorization of a few grammar handouts; rather, it consists of a student’s willingness to learn, understand, and modify the rules that govern language in order to communicate ideas.  One can easily write five pages of nothing that sounds lyrical or drainingly intellectual or fill five pages with brilliant thoughts that are presented in bullet statements.  To achieve a balance between the two is to be a successful college writer; it is a goal to which one must aspire every time he or she picks up a pen.  Thus, writing at this level is perhaps an ongoing process that necessitates a persistent willing-[end 307]-ness to try, fail, and try.  (307-08)

While I'm excited to simply get the students to write these and to see what they'll see, thinking this concretely about one of the assignments is making me realize how essential written dialogue is going to be for this course.  These need to be blog posts, dammit!  So that they can engage directly with one another's observations, building off of similar and different experiences.  I'd been thinking that I wouldn't do a blog next semester: many of these students will be working in the Writing Center or with students in first-year seminars; in the sections where we're talking about feedback, conferencing, and the like, I'll want them to be able to reflect on that work -- but I don't want to compromise anyone's confidentiality.  I'm thinking, then, that I'll have to learn how to do this within Sakai, our CMS.