Effective College Writing

Abstract

When students reach college level, they are often asked to do academic writing assignments which require them to have mastered the knowledge of good writing. Many Korean university students, however, struggle with writing in English due to an exam-based culture. English education in Korea is greatly influenced by the college entrance exam and standardized tests, classrooms focusing on grammar and receptive skills dominate in Korea (Choi, 2008). Since most students have primarily done writing to practice grammar at the sentence level in their high school English classrooms, writing tasks can be more demanding than the other language skills for these EFL students. In order to write effectively in English, students need to explore a variety of texts and models to understand how to use language patterns to accomplish coherent, purposeful prose (Hyland, 2003). Thus, this Textbook aims to help learners develop their writing proficiency through process and genre approaches with interactive writing tasks. This Textbook is intended for 20 university students at the intermediate-mid to high level (ACTFL). The class meets once a week for two and a half hours and most students have learned English in public schools and private institutes where listening and reading have been emphasized. During the semester (16 weeks), students will build basic knowledge to write appropriately in various genres and develop their writing proficiency. While students are exposed to a variety of different genres in this writing class, they will acquire linguistic knowledge such as grammar as well as contextual knowledge of target genres such as the purposes and functions of the text. The writing tasks for this course includes both academic writing tasks such as writing a persuasive text and a research report as well as real-world writing tasks such as writing a review and a travel itinerary. Throughout each unit in the Textbook, students will gain experience writing beyond the sentence level, and start building a foundation for extended writing.