Think for a minute about your high school writing experiences — perhaps you wrote an analysis of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, one or more lab reports for biology, a response to a film about Afghanistan, and a poem about growing up. You may find that when you get to college, more writing is expected, but also more is expected of you as a writer. Sometimes you’ll wonder why no one is telling you what the “more” is or exactly how college writing differs from high school writing.
What’s certain is that you will be required to write in almost all of your college courses — even if you major in fields such as engineering, nursing, or business. Developing different attitudes toward and approaches to academic writing can help you to become a successful writer in all of your college courses.
