READING PASSAGE 1
At school or college the ability to write well is essential to your success.
New demands will be made on your ability to express ideas and
communicate information as clearly and concisely as possible. Your
achievement is measured by how accurately you express what you have
learned.
Your room at college can be the loneliest place in the world, especially in
those early hours of the morning, when you are screwed into the chair at
your desk, the light glaring down on the blank page in your typewriter.
It ’s the sixteenth sheet you’ve rolled into the machine.
You’ve crumpled up the first fifteen and tossed them into your
waste-paper basket; and you still don ’t know how to get started on that
paper due for your English seminar or for your science class.
You may be a plane fare away from home, and there are no parents handy
to turn to for advice. You’re on your own. At no other time of your life
have your writing skills, your ability to write well and effectively, been so
crucial to your success or failure.
And your reliance on these writing skills will not diminish with time; on
the contrary, as you move up from class to class toward that ultimate cap
and gown and the coveted sheepskin, the demands on your writing skills
and techniques become more critical. The instructors and professors
become less lenient with your writing. They want to see evidence of
original thinking in your research papers, a précis which is concise, and
examination papers that show your mastery of style and content.
You undoubtedly appreciate this concern with how you handle your
written assignments, and you try to meet this high standard. But people
tend to develop the writing skills demanded of them by way of trial and
error; and this can prove a time —consuming and often costly method of
learning for the college student.
“Your report lacks organization, ”writes your instructor at the top of the report which took weeks of sweat and sleepless nights as well; and the
grade you receive seems hardly worth the effort you invested.
“Where did you get your facts?” demands your learned professor in the margins of your report on the history of the American tariff; and there goes another unsatisfactory notation into his little black book.
"Your ideas are muddy"
“I asked for a précis, not for your profound observations!"
"Your writing is sadly lacking in clarity.”
You may slap the returned papers down on your desk, and mutter some dire threat, some heartbroken protest, but no one sees you and no one hears you. What is even more painful in such moments is the knowledge that these criticisms by the earnest members of the faculty are eminently correct.
You know, as a matter of fact, that nothing is going to help you write that acceptable book report, précis, or that admirable science report except study and practice of the techniques of good writing. And you know that different kinds of reports require different skills.
READING PASSAGE 2
“WHAT SHALL I WRITE ABOUT?”
That’s the first question you put to yourself, when you’ve been asked to produce a research paper for your history class, your English class, art, science, or any other class...
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