Stepping Up to the College Level

Keith Hjortshoj discusses the writing processes of the students he surveyed. He found that many waited until the last minute to write papers, usually wrote one draft, patched it up, and turned it in. I must confess. I am very guilty of doing the same thing. All throughout high school I would sit down and just write the paper based on the first thoughts that came to my mind. I always figured that those ideas were obviously the best and they would get me the grade that I wanted on it. Typically, I usually got an A or B. So of course, my method was perfect and always worked for me.

When I started at the University of Richmond, I knew that I would have to step up my writing game. The past two weeks have shown me that college professors expect much more than my teachers in high school. Many teachers in my high school didn't expect independent thoughts, but they expected a regurgitation of whatever was discussed in the lecture. My experiences of the last two weeks have shown me that I'm expected to think on my own (much to the dismay of my past English teachers) and be able to express my own opinions eloquently. I know that the writing at the University of Richmond will be tough, but it's a level of difficulty that I'm willing to handle.