why must school place such an emphasis on writing papers?

[Cam'ron]

i've never been a good writer

never will


is that the worst thing in the world?


is adding another paper to the world that no one will read the best use of our youth's time?

[Cam'ron]

thank you

after 15 years of being reminded that i'm not a flowery writer, i've truly had enough

[Cam'ron]

o and btw

the whole idea of 'formal' writing makes me sick to my stomach

we are all human beings, no need to put on airs

[Zephyrus055]

I think my education has made me in to a decent writer, but I can't stress just how much I hate writing college papers. A paper or two that is expected to be 2-3 pages in length is no problem. However, I am paralyzed when those papers are expected to be 10 pages in length. I am a relatively concise writer, and I usually struggle with extending my paper to 10 pages.

Last semester, I was assigned a 6 page paper. Although it was A material at 4.75 pages, that alone made it a B+. Grrr!

[Roger Mexico]

^This is more an issue of an SJ approach to assigning and grading papers, which is unfortunately quite rampant in the educational system.

I'd say writing papers was possibly the most useful part of college for me. (Apart from the recommended reading lists, but I could have just looked up syllabi and gotten the same benefit.)

The appropriate academic use of writing assignments (outside of writing classes, where you're trying to teach technique) is to assess what the student has learned by giving them an opportunity to demonstrate their own thought process about the subject, instead of merely regurgitating what they have been told about it.

If I'm teaching history, for example, I'm looking for the ability to construct a coherent argument about cause and effect using empirical evidence. I can use a test to determine whether facts have been memorized, but I am highly aggravated by, e.g., multiple-choice questions on the order of "Which of the following best characterizes ________________?" This is bull because the word "best" implies that a judgment is being made, and I think it's far more useful to see whether the student can defend any position they choose to take than to see if they've memorized my (the instructor's) opinion on what the best characterization of an event or concept is.

I would think this would be a preferable assessment method for INT's as opposed to the rote memorization measured by multiple-choice, true/false, fill-in-the-blank, etc. types of testing. The latter are easy for me to get "right" but I don't think they adequately allow me to actually demonstrate how well I understand something.

[Cam'ron]

hmm thought this thread would have more success

this is a legit complaint. writing academic papers is an overrated skill

[Etherealsage]

hmm thought this thread would have more success

Savior kinda said it as best as could be said though.

[Ptah]

hmm thought this thread would have more success

this is a legit complaint. writing academic papers is an overrated skill

Perhaps there just isn't enough difference of opinion on the matter.

There isn't any here, fwiw.

While being generally literate to some degree is certainly an immensely practical, perhaps even necessary thing (to function as a viable member of modern civilization), I think academia takes it way beyond the point of any practical, necessary application (apart from into contexts not themselves related to or encapsulated by academia itself ... a whole little microcosm of dubious distensions going on there, in general).

That said, some professions demand (if not necessitate) more literate skill than others, perhaps. But let those who pursue such professions deal with that, and leave the rest to learn what they want to learn otherwise (if anything), I say. See also: math. See also: history. See also: academics overall.

[nonperson]

I loved writing papers. It is exams I can't stand.

[Polemarch]

In theory, a paper allows for the reader to see your thought process - not simply whether or not you can remember the relevant material, but whether or not you really understand it.

But in practice, it's a triumph of form over function. People developed standards about what is considered the "correct" way of writing a paper, and slavishly support that.