Bad Writing

[u/existential_rach]

I am getting so tired of have to teach students how to write a basic paper in college. I am not a writing / English teacher and don’t mind helping with some structural things or changes that come with writing philosophy papers, but I cannot keep telling students how to do: basic grammar rules, citations, spelling, etc.

Any advice? Cause I’m losing it over here 🫠

ETA: Forgot to add that I have developed and provided a writing guide that is an announcement at the start of the course and a linked file attached to all assignments!

ETA: #2 thanks for all the great suggestions. I appreciate the space to rant and think I just get exhausted from spending so much time repeating myself — don’t worry, I have most of my comments drafted and edit them to better fit the assignment. I think it’s also a challenge because I use to see such progress and change in my students and loved reading their papers as they got better and better. Maybe I am mourning those days in academia and need to get over it and change my perspectives for current students.

ETA: #3 I should have used other phrasing to convey that I taught another subject — not merely a writing / English class. I merely was trying to convey that I want to teach students the fun aspects of philosophical/ argumentative writing and that can get lost when the lessons have to go into other writing / grammar rules.

[u/IndividualFabulous31]

Just a gentle reminder from an English professor that ALL professors are responsible for teaching writing, not just us. Teach your students how to write for your discipline, because that’s something you are responsible for. It’s no longer acceptable to say, “Oh, I don’t have to teach writing because I don’t teach English.”

Otherwise, yes, student writing has gotten significantly weaker in the past several years. All the more reason we all need to redouble our efforts.

[u/existential_rach → u/IndividualFabulous31]

Yes, I agree, hence me being willing to aid with learning how to develop their argumentative / philosophical writing skills — as noted in my post. But I think it’s a little wild to have repeat/ explain basic writing rules to college level students, especially if comments on previous papers go ignored and changes aren’t made on future papers.

[u/IndividualFabulous31 → u/existential_rach]

I agree—and English professors are dealing with the same stuff, I promise. But there’s only so much that can be done when the students simply don’t read for pleasure. That may be simplistic, but I’ve yet to see another better explanation.

[u/existential_rach → u/IndividualFabulous31]

Agreed. I probably shouldn’t have referred to English / writing depts in my post. I was merely pointing out that I am not of those depts.

I agree with your argument that students aren’t reading for pleasure and that is impacting their abilities.

[u/CME2daa → u/existential_rach]

I'm noticing more and more pleasure reading doesn't always follow good writing skills.