“The author’s careful placement of commas evokes the ephemeral nature of loss” is a sentence that, at first glance, sounds impressive. But could you tell me what it means? Welcome to high school English class.
Despite years of writing essays, most students arrive at college unable to write. The problem isn’t students’ lack of effort, it’s the system. Too often, high school English classes reward empty prose and formulaic writing geared toward a single AP test. Instead of learning how to get their point across, students are rewarded for coming up with “academic” sounding fluff.
“By the time students get to me, I have to unteach all the bad writing habits they picked up from years of high school English,” says Kristin Sainani, a Stanford writing professor and creator of the popular online course Writing in the Sciences.
High-school English classes currently emphasize literary analysis above all else. While literary analysis is valuable, it accounts for a small fraction of the writing most people will do in their lives. Outside a few niche English departments, few jobs hinge on a person’s ability to analyze the meaning of a tree branch or the color red. Literary analysis is abstract and ambiguous; it forces students to master the art of sounding like they know something without ever saying anything.
“Good writing is about knowing what you want to say and saying it in a way your reader can understand,” Sainani says. The best way to teach this kind of clear, concise, concrete writing is through genres that students will actually use, such as writing for scientific articles, op-eds, speeches, informational pieces, novels, emails, and social media posts. English classes should also make room for creative writing, which also inspires a love for writing that literary analysis does not.
Because AP tests reward formulaic writing, teachers often require students to follow rigid writing templates. But writing is not math: there is no one formula that defines a good piece of writing, no right or wrong answer. Writing to conform to a template doesn’t teach students how to think independently, and independent thought is the foundation of clear writing. Many English classes do assign good reading, and reading is fundamental to learning to write. However, when students are forced to zoom in on a few quotes or literary devices to fit the formula, this doesn’t allow them to engage with the book as a whole.
English classes also often ignore the basics. Too many kids can recite the definition of dramatic irony yet don’t know what an em dash is, or don’t understand the difference between a sentence fragment and a run-on. “The extent of my learning grammar stopped in middle school,” says Saanvi Sharma, a Wilcox student currently taking English 10 Honors.
Many English classes also fail to provide the one thing students need most to improve: detailed, line-by-line feedback. Instead of detailed feedback, students receive arbitrary grades based on checkbox rubrics. Unfortunately, a teacher cannot teach a student how to write by simply circling a box—the student has to be shown where they’ve gone wrong. “I have had certain teachers,” Sharma says, “who should remain unnamed, who leave a single line of feedback. Like: this piece is too vague. Wow, thanks. that really helps.”
Since when did English class stop prioritizing learning? Students deserve a curriculum that goes beyond literary analysis and five-paragraph formulas. Teachers have to realize that the only way to improve students’ writing is through delivering real and concrete feedback. Education must prioritize students’ futures over one-time AP tests.
We need to learn to write for life, not just for the classroom. If we can’t teach that, then we aren’t teaching writing at all.
