Questions we can ask ourselves based on the differences between high school and college instructors' responses

Observation #1:  Process is valued more by college instructors than HS instructors expect it will be.

• Do HS instructors assign fewer drafts because they expect college instructors will not allow multiple drafts?
• Are institutional realities like pupil-instructor ratios simply too high to sustain truly effective process pedagogy in most high schools?

Observation #2:  College instructors sometimes seem to expect writing that is both more personal and more academic.

• What place is there for the personal in academic essays?
• Are there ways to write "personally" that don't require using "I"?  
• Does including the personal mean using personal experience?

Observation #3:  Some college instructors rail against the 5-paragraph essay.

• Is the 5-paragraph a useful structure at one point in students’ writing development?  If so, how do we help them move beyond it?  What does "beyond it" mean?
• What pedagogical assumptions lie in the disparagement of the 5-paragraph essay?  In the promotion of it?

Observation #4:  In general, HS courses focus on literature; first-year college courses focus on nonfiction.

• What are the institutional and/or pedagogical reasons that HS and college curricula for writing differ so?
• Should college curricula move in the direction of HS curricula or vice-versa?  Is the progression from literature to nonfiction developmentally appropriate?
• Is it possible for a focus on literature to coexist with a focus on writing more "academically," that is, to write effective arguments that rely upon close reading of sources and upon analysis?  If so, what would this work look like at different levels of education?

Observation #5: High school instructors rely far more on objective tests and timed writing than college instructors do.

• Are college instructors’ perceptions about students’ weak critical and analytic skills related to the reduced emphasis on grading essays and research papers in high schools?
• To what extent are evaluation practices in high schools the result of heavy course and pupil loads? The result of high stakes (state) testing?  The result of differing pedagogical assumptions?
• Are there ways of teaching that allow students to write more (in productive ways) that don't require more time with a stack of papers to grade?