This Week's Big Thirsty. "How do you actually improve student writing? Is it even possible?"

Flava from InsideHigherEd:

Why can't my new employees write? I heard this question several times on my recent vacation... I then ask them why they think the next generation of white-collar professionals can't write. The most common response is a belief in a lack of "rigor" in their employees' educational pasts. I don't find the lack of rigor explanation persuasive... For me, the key to changing this is to make writing more engaging in every sense of the word,

The rest of the misery.

[+]

So employers say new graduates can't write because of lack of rigor in writing instruction, and the columnist immediately dismisses their input. The employers, he says, are wrong. The real reason is that we professors still aren't pandering hard enough (paraphrasing here), and if we were just that much more "engaging" our problems would be solved.

I, too, get this question from employers. Their complaint is straightforward: Graduates have not mastered basic grammar and mechanics..

The intro comp instructors agree. It's true, they say. We don't deal with grammar and mechanics. The deficits there are so overwhelming that we wouldn't have time to cover anything else.

So I'm not so quick to dismiss the employers' input. What I'd like to know is, what's the answer?

I'm not aware of any study showing improved writing via "engagement." Is this a real thing, or is it wishful thinking / a hipper-than-thou status display?

Q: Is anyone aware of any efforts that have actually improved college students' writing in their native language?

Making the best of Clinton's new higher-ed plan from Frankie.

So Clinton just released what sounds like a truly horrible set of proposals for higher ed: 

• Opening up federal financial aid to "alternative providers"
• Providing (unspecified) incentives for actual colleges and universities to accept credits from those "alternative providers"
• Automatically awarding green cards to international students who graduate with advanced STEM degrees. 

Now, we Miserians are a can-do, optimistic bunch. Surely we can think of ways to make this nasty little potion of perverse incentives more palatable. For ourselves, anyway, if not for higher ed.

Here's my plan, should this come to pass: 

Aunty Frankie's Surf-n-STEM Academy.

As a Disruptopreneur Alternative Provider, I don't need to bother with unfashionable, buzzkill-y things like ABET accreditation, dorms, classrooms, faculty, or learning objectives. 

No GRE? No problem! My advanced STEM degrees will be available to anyone who has the foresight and out-of-the-box thinking required to pony up a hundred and fifty grand. (Sure, it's about twice the industry average, but can your snakehead get you a guaranteed green card? Didn't think so!) Because my Surf-n-STEM Academy will have a MOOC option, there's no uncomfortable transoceanic travel required, Residency requirements and ID verification are so last-century.

And best of all, it'll qualify for federal financial aid!

Anyone interested in investing? 

Frankie

(P.S. I did consider one other disruptovative option, setting up a mostly-online school with a 68:1 adjunct-to-full-timer ratio, but that just seemed too evil.)

I would've won every game

It's not a new idea, but perhaps this is a new take on it:

​
Maybe you can guess what my last few weeks have been like.

I invite you to add your own entries in the comments.

---From Ogre Proctor Hep.