College Instructor Perceptions of Student Writing Preparedness Across Disciplines

Abstract

In college classrooms across the country, instructors throughout various disciplines have expressed concern over their students’ writing abilities. Many find that their students are under-prepared for the writing demands of their courses, and while there have been studies examining this issue over the years (Brockman, Taylor, Kreth, and Crawford., 2011; Horwitz, 2007), there has yet to be a clear determination of the source of these struggles nor a consistent discussion of what may be done to better prepare these students for college-level writing.

For this research study, I wanted to discover what both teachers of English as well as teachers of other disciplines thought regarding students’ writing proficiency. I also wanted to find out what other college instructors perceived as students’ weaknesses when it comes to their writing abilities, as well as how much, what type, and to what extent the importance of competent writing affects the grades in their courses. Throughout this research, I wished to explore what potential suggestions these instructors might have in order to better prepare students for the writing demands of English as well as other disciplines.