<p>By an odd coincidence, my college freshman year English professor suggested I read two novels over the summer to improve my writing: Middlemarch and Bleak House. I loved Bleak House, and despised Middlemarch.</p>
<p>English 101 is generally designed to teach how to write research papers.
I took English 101 at a community college, which was taught by a poet, and while I earn a B in the class, I did not make up the gap from what I missed from dropping out of high school, and what the English 102 instructor required.</p>
<p>Older daughters college, does not even have 101, as English is covered under the umbrella of Humanities-& also includes philosophy, art history, & the classics. Reading list for just one term was a long list of original( trans.) texts.
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Hunt The “papers” we wrote in my high school were pathetic, and it was a big wake-up call for me when I got to college. My kids, on the other hand, had to write much more substantive papers in their high school program, and were much better prepared for college writing than I was. That’s just my personal experience, but it does make me wonder if things have really gotten worse overall.*</p>
<p>That is what I observed also. Both kids, one at an inner city public & one at a private prep had lengthy assigned research papers as well as term papers and even novellas ( that was the public school with a newish teacher- he later shortened the assignment)</p>
<p>Of course in high school I had to write by hand & in college, on a typewriter.- I much prefer digital!</p>
<p>I was an English major back in the day and was/am considered to be a pretty good writer. The best writing instruction (and advice) I ever received was in a religion class. Very few of my English professors actually “taught” me how to write.</p>
<p>Hunt, I recently took an English class at a local directional university rarely discussed on CC. The professor in that class was fabulous - and yes, she did provide the class with examples of good writing (and good college papers). She told me later that it was easier to alert people up front than to try to remedy problems later on.</p>
<p>The best educational advice I had was by an adjuct professor for freshman composition–if you can eliminate a word and still get the same meaning across–do it!</p>
<p>uskoolfish, my 8th grade honors English teacher taught me the same thing.</p>
<p>I understand that this varies from high school to high school, but I’m appalled at the lack of rigor applied to English and history classes in my youngest D’s school and this is a high performing private school. How these kids can hope to master good writing when they get to college is a mystery to me. On the other hand, my oldest D, an English major with a writing concentration, lamented that the English majors at her college were mainly there because the major was so easy to fulfill.</p>
<p>That’s horrifying that your daughter’s English teacher wanted her to dumb down her language!</p>
<p>The whole concept of the reduction in importance of humanities major is so not what I need to hear right now…daughter got 800 on non-math SAT scores (but not in math!). Ugh. We do still need excellent writers so I’m certainly hoping there is a job market out there that recognizes those who do not write in text-speak.</p>
<p>Tranquilmind, there is a market out there. It’s competitive and the compensation isn’t what it is in finance and computer programming but it is there for those who really want it and work hard for it.</p>
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<p>One of my all time favorite books was Strunk and White’s “The Elements of Style” which I think should be required reading for everyone. Their advice in the spirit of the above: “Omit Needless words.”</p>
<p>…and they said it in 3 words!</p>
<p>D got a hardbound copy of it Elements of Style from a friend for a present recently. I had bought her a paperback version when she went off to college.</p>
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And it’s much shorter than Middlemarch and Bleak House.</p>
<p>[Orwell:</a> Politics and the English Language](<a href=“http://www.resort.com/~prime8/Orwell/patee.html]Orwell:”>Orwell: Politics and the English Language)</p>
<p>I like Orwell as a fiction writer, too. </p>
<p>He says never use a long word where a short one will do. I think the english teacher of the OP’s D got confused about the $20 words and the $10 words. BTW, I had a fabulous english teacher in HS, and I will never forget how he commented on my use of “25 cent Freudian terms”. I guess there is inflation today.</p>
<p>Orwell’s (generally) non-fictional works are also great. I would recommend Down and Out In Paris and London for anyone who studying European history and interested in caste dynamics.</p>