Misunderstanding
In Communication courses, one concept that students often misunderstand is the simplicity of professional writing. Many students have learned clichéd writing in high school or have practiced writing for a particular standardized English test. These students seem to think the more complex the sentence and word choice is, the more sophisticated the writing is, hence better.
Student writing with long sentences and unclear sentence structure is like driving on a rough, winding, and unpaved road, versus clear and concise writing is to drive on a well-paved highway. To help students understand this, I ask them to write paragraphs of the same topic, and then grade each other’s writing using the given rubric. They experience the challenge of reading and understanding overly wordy writing. They also make suggestions to their peer’s writing, which helps them practice clear and concise writing.
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