College Illiteracy

[lyonspotter]

As an instructor of art for the past 7 years, I have had the disheartening experience of encountering illiteracy at the college level with a frequency that far exceeded my expectations. Having taught at the University of California, Santa Barbara; Fresno City College; Hillsborough Community College in Tampa, FL; and Bakersfield College, I decided to collect the hundreds of student essays written for my classes that were abandoned by their authors (the fact that these students did not find the retrieval of their work to be important was in many ways discouraging enough). I decided to archive these student essays as documentation of the growing illiteracy problem, for what I found in the contents therein mirrored and sometimes surpassed the following data:

http://livinnthebigtime.blogspot.com/2009/07/look-like-if-words-are-bleeding.html


A video from the research: http://livinnthebigtime.blogspot.com/2009/07/reading-15-excerpts-from-collegiate.html

[MountainLaurel]

1. Wish I could see the exhibit in person

I'm a professional editor and I can totally attest to what this author is talking about.

[XemaSab]

2. This is shocking and depressing

I guess I shouldn't be surprised that the UC students were as bad as the others, but it seems like such a waste that an illiterate person took a space at the UC that a literate person could have had. Not to mention the fact that an illiterate person apparently was receiving the A's and B's necessary to gain admission to the UC.

How does someone that challenged even pass high school English? :shrug:

[LibDemAlways]

3. I can believe the statistic that a third of high school students never read

another book the rest of their lives. If literature is widely taught to high school students in the way it is in my daughter's school, it's easy to understand why. Novels are no longer subjects for discussion. They are dissected like frogs in biology class with students required to select and copy passages from each and every chapter of each and every book and then analyze the passages to death. It's a grind, and completely removes the pleasure aspect from the reading process.

I am a substitute teacher. Last year I subbed for a 7th grade English teacher who was out on maternity leave for six weeks. The curriculum was strictly regimented by the department chair, and I had to follow the program, which included a writing unit. What a joke. The kids were given a specific formula to follow. Topic sentence - Detail One - Explanation - Detail Two - Explanation - Transition sentence to the next paragraph. Rinse. Repeat. Reading the essays it became apparent that some of the kids would have had something interesting to say if they had been given more freedom to express themselves. As it was, they were trapped in a stifling box. It's much the same with my 10th grade daughter. She is provided with a formula for writing an essay and expected to work within it. Points taken off for originality and creativity! It's a shame and certainly doesn't foster any great desire to write or write well.

[XemaSab]

6. That's how literature was taught in my high school

As an avid reader, it made English a torture. It's also instilled in me a mortal dread of Dickens. :scared:

[LibDemAlways]

10. I had enjoyed The Catcher in the Rye in high school and looked

forward to my daughter reading it last year. The "choose and write a detailed analysis of three passages from each chapter" assignment as well as the "Write an essay conforming to a set formula" killed it for her - and, ironically, was completely out of sync with the theme of the novel. Daughter approaches all assigned reading with dread. It really is a shame.

[Jim__]

4. And direct from today's Washington Post:

TechCrunch under a Washington Post banner, so I'm not clear if it actually appeared in the Post:

A judge and Texas as ruled that Microsoft Word's XML systems violate patents by Toronoto-based i4i Inc.

[CrispyQ]

5. This thread really needs the critical snip from the article.

snip...

I'll close with a few meticulously copied "statements" that one can find strewn about within the essays/writings, followed by photographic documentation of the finalized project.

1) The people that are around the three crosses have source and many other weapons showing hate thorst Jesus.*

2) I like art so much intil I was shild.*

3) The artist work was native drawing and use on ink without carbon.

4) The video was made with funny reaction twenty feet long, and the footage of the tress were spinning systematic ally.

5) Art refers to describe a particular type of creative production generated by us human evil beings, and the term usually implies some degree of aesthetic value.

6) There was another fish creation on a larger canvas when in was orange wax fish on turquoise wash background.

7) The board itself has a collection of Warhol paintings how do know they have all authentic and they just so happen to own the largest portion of Warhol works to sell as they see fit.

8) The one particular eye catcher in the picture is to the left of the painting are two red lines almost as if I the background.

9) On the other hand, the photo that was shown in ceiling room contains these materials: flat screen projector, audio the here the supposedly wind.

10) There is more water then anything in the painting to the visual importance is present yet the closer the waves in eyesight the larger they are as along with the birds.

11) I mentions Jasmine painting are totally different then the others.

12) Sol Lewit Was a key figure in conceptual art, and the way the middle eye and physical space interact.

13) Schnabel says Banquiat gifted yes, but unable to use gifts in sustained, meaningful way.

14) Rembradt has paint very classic well detail on his paints.*

15) VanGogh use many shokes in his paint and many color in each shoke.*

=====
k&r

[LibDemAlways]

7. Those are bad, and it's pretty apparent that the writers never

bothered to read aloud what they wrote. When I had my own classroom years ago, I insisted students never hand in any essays until they had read them aloud and shared them with somebody else. It makes a difference.

[lyonspotter]

8. CrispyQ!!!!

How are ya? I posted this thread in the 'general' discussion, but felt it would have an appropriate audience here for discussion.

(Please discuss in the 'general' discussion thread by the same name. People are making all sorts of strange claims and deductions there about what this all means! I have really enjoyed your critical analysis...)

[CrispyQ]

9. Hey, lyonspotter!

I remember that thread & that in 2 days it got 4 recs! I couldn't believe it, cuz there were some stellar comments in that thread. Maybe this one will do better.

:hi:

[lyonspotter]

11. I am hoping...

It is such a huge problem that it really needs to get on the Great Page.

People need to know what is happening from grass roots research and findings.

Thanks!!!

[CrispyQ]

12. Here's another kick for you.

;)

[Berry Cool]

13. I think the illiteracy is worst in the students not majoring in English or literature

(even though they're not perfect either) because it's like there's a new paradigm for written expression: it doesn't matter anymore whether you can spell, use grammar or punctuate properly, just so long as you "get your meaning across."

Of course, part of the reason spelling, grammar and punctuation matter is that they can have a huge effect on whether or not you "get your meaning across"--as these examples show.

But that's very hard to convince people of when they are busy referring to people who care about these things as "spelling nazis," "grammar nazis," "punctuation nazis," etc.

Yes, nowadays if you think careful writing and word usage matter, you are the equivalent of a Nazi in some people's eyes, and you are thwarting the creative expression of our youth, by stifling them and saying they cannot contribute their thoughts and ideas until they learn how to express them according to a set of verbal construction rules.

[leftyclimber]

15. A lot of the problem, at least with my students, is that they think English is only for

English classes. And math is only for math classes. And so on. Everything's compartmentalized for them. No matter how hard we hammer on the fact that a lot of their work when they get out of school is going to be written, a rather large group of students seems to try to get by with the minimum, and that includes coherent writing.

I use a pretty stiff grading rubric to mark written projects. Twenty percent of the grades my students earn on written assignments is from grammar, spelling, and punctuation. I'm thinking about increasing that percentage this year because the message is not hitting home, by and large.

[libguy9560]

14. Why am I not surprised?

You only have to look at the way people spell on forums. Says a lot about our education system.