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College prep 101: Focus on key writing skills

by | Dec 26, 2016 | College Prep, High school

Knowledge and application of key writing skills will help your student earn higher test scores, write quality college application essays, and become a better communicator. That’s the good news.

But there’s bad news too: many college students possess dismal writing skills and are not sufficiently prepared for academic coursework.

I know this is pretty disheartening. It can be easy to give in to gloom and discouragement. Instead, let’s look at positive, practical ways to equip our teens for college-level writing.

Cover the Basics

The requirements are pretty simple, really: focus on basic but key writing skills throughout junior high and high school to adequately prepare your students.

Make sure your teens regularly write quality compositions and papers. Specifically, they should know how to write a:

Minimally, by the time your teens graduates from high school, they should at least know how to:

Plan Ahead

If you teach these foundational writing skills early, you’ll still have time to introduce advanced writing and longer, more specific essays in 11th and 12th grade, including:

So make a plan. Keep working on your teen’s grammar and writing skills, and give purposeful writing assignments on a regular basis. Otherwise, writing will keep dropping to the bottom of the stack—and your teen will be in for a rude awakening when his college years begin.

Key writing skills help high schoolers earn higher test scores, write quality college application essays, and become a better communicators.

Catch the Whole College Prep 101 Series

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