No matter how difficult high school writing may seem, college writing presents challenges of its own. The fourth in a series of 24 handouts from The Writing Center at UNC breaks down the expectations for college writing. Scholars learn to break out of the five-paragraph theme many high schools teach and discover actionable tips to improve their college papers.

Concepts

essay writing, college preparation, types of writing, research writing

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Additional Tags

english language arts

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Instructional Ideas

• Use a model five-paragraph essay to demonstrate the problems outlined in the handout
• Assign a topic and use the brainstorming techniques in the handout to come up with ideas for the paper

Classroom Considerations

• Assumes knowledge of the five-paragraph format

Pros

• Includes hyperlinks to resources used to create the handout to explore the topic further
• Offers headers, bullet points, and other text features to make the handout easy to skim and scan

Cons

• Focuses solely on one aspect of high school versus college writing and misses other essential components

Common Core

W.9-10.4 W.9-10.5 W.11-12.4 W.11-12.5