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The Writing Skills Gap

Dec 01, 2024 | Posted by Colin G. Chesley, EdD, MBA

This country is locked in a learning quagmire caused by an educational misalignment, which has resulted in many students entering higher education with a clear deficit in college-ready writing skills. Long-term, the United States must work to resolve this misalignment, but for the foreseeable future, the United States needs to bridge this gap immediately.

Reports abound from professors of entry-level courses that students are ill-prepared to write at a collegiate level. Others are reporting that college students who do the work still respond to assigned readings by writing papers that are odd or ungrounded in what was said in the source text, signaling a lapse in reading comprehension and an inability to analyze and synthesize the reading into coherent writing. Here is a mere sampling of articles that begin to explain the depth of this pervasive problem:

In multiple conversations with writing composition faculty, I hear concerns about these differences in expectations. The fundamental “writing skills gap” that exists between high school writing and collegiate-level writing occurs not because educators lack willingness but because it is baked into the system. To understand the misalignment of expectations at both levels, consider the following:

High School Writing 
Instruction Focus		 Collegiate-Level Writing 
Instruction Focus
  • Patterns of writing
  • Audience, purpose, and genre
  • Writing formulas
  • Writing process
  • “Chunking” reading (i.e., reading short blurbs as found in social media), which minimizes cognitive interaction with text and reduces writing skills
  • Critical reading skills and engagement with entire texts as a learning activity to enhance writing skills that are at the collegiate level


These differences are likely exacerbated and promulgated because of a focus on standardized testing skills and outcomes. 

How do schools, teachers, and parents help students be more prepared to enter higher education and be successful? What can be done to help them bridge this gap? The answer is straightforward but not easy. Learners need direct writing instruction before entering college.

To start, more schools need to provide a stronger focus on implementing a writing curriculum that will enable students to flourish at the university, such as what Hillsdale College includes in their K-12 program (https://k12.hillsdale.edu/Curriculum/Overview/ ). Likewise, teachers need the freedom to request robust writing curricula from their school administration or district.

Most importantly, restoring the lost skills of excellent writing will entail the involvement of parents or suitable surrogates such as adult family members, tutors, or online instructors. Youth need a writing curriculum that is iterative in process. It should promote a useful feedback mechanism that teaches a true writing structure approach and includes engaging source text materials. For most college-bound high school students, the twelve-week University-Ready Writing (URW) course from the Institute for Excellence in Writing provides all of this and will bridge the current educational gap beautifully. I am so confident that this is true that my family began using the URW curriculum with our oldest son before he entered college this fall. 
 
As a nation with a history of compulsory education spanning 100+ years, English Language Arts instruction has improved the lives of millions in the United States, yet more is required. The United States needs to better prepare its youth for meaningful lives in the public setting in careers, community engagement, and service. However, until such time schools implement robust writing training nationally for grades 3-12, someone must bridge this gap. Otherwise, the country will remain lodged in a quagmire of misaligned educational expectations. Today, right now, what the United States needs is more parents to bridge the writing skills gap and actively participate in their children’s writing education.


by Colin Chesley, EdD, MBA

Reference List

Dr. Colin G. Chesley is Associate Vice President of the College of Health and Public Services at Daytona State College in Daytona Beach, Florida. He is responsible for oversight and operations of the Bob and Carol Allen School of Nursing, the School of Health Careers, the School of Dental Sciences, and the Charles M. Curb School of Emergency Services. Dr. Chesley and his wife have five children.

This article first appeared in the 2025 Arts of Language Schools Magalog

© 2025, Institute for Excellence in Writing, L.L.C.
The above article is available for your personal use or for distribution. Permission given to duplicate complete and unaltered.

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