BY OAKCREST SCHOOL
CO
TEN T:
A lthough a lot of fanfare has
surrounded STEM subj ects
in recent years, a school’ s
writing prog ram is one of its most
crucial assets.

eveloping outstanding
writing skills early on will serve your
child for the rest of her life. And being
an ex cellent writer is the key to success
in college, whether a student intends to
maj or in biology, literature or anything
in between.

nfortunately, many students are
woefully unprepared for the rigors
of college writing. According to a
survey by the
ational Assessment
of Educational Progress,
percent of students in the class of
who took the ACT writing test were not
able to pass a college- level English
composition class.

any students
won’ t get to try their hand at serious
writing until college.

owever, good
writing habits should be fi rmly in
place before your child ever steps on a
college campus. This requires years of
steadily mastering the building blocks
of the English language.

A school’ s writing program should
pique students’ imagination and
creativity, while also training them
to think clearly and present their
30 October 2018
washingtonFAMILY.com arguments in a logical manner. This
begins in elementary and middle
school, with a foundation of grammar,
syntax , vocabulary and elements of
style.

astering writing fundamentals
will not only boost students’ grades
in college, but also gives them the
freedom to engage with material on
a deeper level. When the time comes
to wrangle with sophisticated topics,
a prepared student will be able to
dive headfi rst into the subject matt er
and not have to spend much time
struggling with basic writing pitfalls.

Regular writing assignments also
form a crucial part of any writing
curriculum. These should range from
literary analyses to creative writing
and descriptive essays. This routine
writing is necessary to hone skills,
giving students the ability to present
original thoughts in a clear, clean
prose. And it also prepares the student
for the intense college academic
schedule, which will include many
writt en assignments over the course of
each semester.

At
akcrest School in
ienna,
A, the culmination of students’ writing
ex periences is the senior thesis proj ect,
a chance to ex their writing muscles
before heading off to college. The
thesis is the capstone of each
akcrest student’ s high school career, and gives
him or her the opportunity to research,
write and present on a chosen topic.

Students have writt en on everything
from narcissism in F. Scott Fi gerald’s
novels to bioethics, the in uence of
the Industrial Revolution on the drug
industry, Broadway musicals and
beyond. The skills they apply to the
thesis are taken from years of practice
in the fundamental writing arts.

After spending so much time with
a subj ect, the students learn to ask
the right questions, and they learn
to think more deeply, seeing that the
answers are more complex than they
initially thought. It is important for
them to enter into the conversation
with scholars and see that they
sometimes disagree or even contradict
one another, says Oakcrest English
department head, Lisa Kenna. By the
time they write their thesis, students
not only understand sentence structure
and how to organize i deas, but they’ re
able to make connections across
disciplines and tie themes and concepts
together into a cohesive whole.

It’ s this ability to engage with and
write about complex questions in a
persuasive manner that will catapult
your student to success in college.

Whatever he or she decides to study,
the need for clear, intelligent writt en
communication remains. In a world
where strong writt en communication
is more rare than ever, a student with
writing ex pertise will go far.

akcrest School is an independent school
for girls in grades 6- 12, guided by the
teachings of the Catholic Church. For
over 40 years, the school has provided an
exceptional liberal arts education to girls
o all ait w ile l lli it i io to
grow, challenge and inspire its students
to thrive in college and throughout their
li e . ear
ore at akcre t.or .

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SPO
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