Preparing Non-Traditional Students for College Writing

Many nontraditional students who test into college preparatory writing programs, struggle with writing basics. This is crucial to acknowledge in light of the projected 19.8 million students enrolling for college level courses this year (Department of Ed., 2011). Personal experience and consideration of researched statistics confirm that a majority of these students are non-traditional students, enrolled in preparatory writing classes, and for whom it is likely to have been a long time since they were required to write formally. With focus on specific career goals of this growing student population, an approach to training in college writing requires reflection on factors such as previous education, work history, and  students attitude toward writing instruction.  

Special care given to instructional design adapts the traditional preparatory writing training to fit the busy adult lifestyles and to make content meaningful for career-minded students of disparate educational and professional backgrounds. Research and teaching experience in adult education demonstrate that a significant percentage of nontraditional students fear the writing process, are reluctant to see value in covering the basics of grammar, and do not understand why they need writing training.

This shows that the needs of these students is met by helping them understand how their degree goals benefit from increased writing skill and aids them with writing requirements throughout their specific program and in their subsequent careers’.

Student Need

The needs of nontraditional students are diverse and pose new demands on postsecondary institutions and the curriculum used for preparatory writing. A number of documented cases show how improving grammar and use for nontraditional students must shift to focus on use; thus, indicating that that traditional methodology currently employed for preparatory writing classes must defer from endless grammar worksheets and encourage students to write.