Summary of Pekins Article

https://wac.colostate.edu/books/collegelevel/chapter15.pdf/ 

In “A Community College Professor Reflects on First-Year Composition,” John Perkins states that ENC 1101 College Composition is the foundation for students to reach their personal goals. However, those who are involved in first-year composition have a lack of understanding the course’s main idea and the criteria for college writing. Perkins starts by pointing out his disappointing class grade averages and essays that illustrate “flat line reasoning”. With the proof of these low averages, Perkins supports his theory that students and teachers have trouble realizing the level of college writing and the important needs to meet the high standards of a considerable essay. Most incoming freshmen in college have no background practices of activities associated with academic reading and writing. Perkins reveals that students are unsuccessful with academic discourse because of their addiction to television and the shortage of interest in reading. In addition, Perkins believes that more people go to college because it leads them to a degree that benefits them financially, and not because they are interested in the values of college education. Perkins states two solutions in order to solve these problems that he acknowledged. He first recommends that teachers take action upon assessment criteria to accurately define college-level writing. Teachers can consider investigating together to expose and agree with what college writing and the collaborative criteria demonstrates for the struggling students. Secondly, Perkins mentions that students can adapt to the process of writing college compositions by integrating reading with writing. Students are able to conduct a stronger college composition by writing about what they read instead of their personal experiences. Perkins concludes that the process of writing needs to be broken down into smaller steps, so that first-year composition students can thoroughly understand the level of college writing and the obstacles it takes to reach the potential of that standard.