College Writing is a course which will help you develop various writing skills and also sharpen your creative skills. It will introduce to you the formal conventions and practices of academic writing. Through engaging in written communication, you will learn to develop and refine your thoughts into meaningful texts. You will be taught about various writing conventions such as spelling, punctuation, formatting, use of author information and other such rules.
In this course, you are likely to read extensively on important issues that students are required to know. These include research methodology, historical materialism, the role of technology in higher education, and evaluation of one’s own work. In addition, college writing involves writing essays or other documents in order to present an idea or argument. Essays are used not only for the purpose of expressing ideas but also to earn academic credit and to demonstrate one’s capability in a particular academic discipline or field. Writing essays helps the college student to acquire academic skills such as research methodologies and quality assessment.
Aspiring college students need to possess a basic understanding of composition. Professors at every college teach different courses and they assign different students different topics to discuss. Students need to read widely and be acquainted with many different topics in order to perform well in college writing classes. Students are encouraged to read widely and should always be prepared to read, understand and analyze new materials.
A college writing class is divided into several groups. The first group is composed of individuals who write thesis statements. The thesis statement is the main document produced by all group members in order to read and analyze the main body of work researched and presented in class. All students in the first group are encouraged to write original thesis statements. The thesis statement is reviewed by the professor before it is submitted to the class for approval. In general, a thesis statement must contain five basic elements; motivation, purpose, academic and personal background, results and implications.
Group members who receive writing assignments carry the responsibility to read the assignment and to return it for approval, at least one time. Once the student has submitted the assignment, he/she is required to complete the assignment and return it for approval. After approval, the student will receive an official written confirmation from the professor detailing the completion of his/her assignment and the date on which the essay was last submitted.
The second group of college students to whom five-paragraph essays are usually directed belong to those who lack strong writing abilities. However, if you belong to this group, you are encouraged to have strong writing skills so that you may acquire better grades in five-paragraph essays. The key skill to possess in five paragraph essays is the ability to organize your ideas logically and effectively. This way, you can anticipate the questions and doubts that your professors will ask.
Most college instructors, when grading five paragraph essays, concentrate on the first paragraph or “the main idea”. Consequently, the student is tempted to rush through the other five paragraphs. However, rushing does not make one a good writer. On the contrary, rushing will often spoil an otherwise good writing composition. Instead, the college instructor will want you to spend adequate time analyzing and considering your essay. This will allow you to build your own strong points so that you can efficiently present your arguments to your professor.
As mentioned earlier, college students are advised to conduct proper research and gather relevant information in order to present their thesis. In addition to this, they should also develop an elaborate plan on how to appropriately use the various resources such as quotations, illustrations and other sources to support and strengthen their case. However, in the final analysis, college professors are more concerned with the quality of the college student’s argument rather than the quantity of their references and cited works. A good argument will make college students look as good as their colleagues in the workplace. So if you want to make a good impression in college, follow the aforementioned advice and craft a convincing thesis to earn a top grade.