Post 07: High School Writing vs. College Writing

    Writing in high school and writing in college are indeed cut from the same cloth, but the creases and folds of each are way different. For starters, writing in high school's core is built upon many unhealthy stigmas for the art of writing as a whole. This isn't to say college writing doesn't also have its own odd quirks, but most students can say that the hardest part of college writing is destroying those same habits burned into their brains in high school--a specific example being the condemnation of first person in high school academic writing. 

    The average highschooler is taught to avoid first person while writing academically to keep a sense of objectivity and formality, which is no doubt important in college writing as well. But this method of "I-less prose" doesn't leave any room for the writer to employ any type of nuance in their work, which, depending on the class, the assignment, and the context behind it, is much more important in life than either of the two previously mentioned qualities, whether writing for college or even for a professional setting such as a job application which require one to be "more flexible, sophisticated, and subtle than writing for high school English classes ... [because] first person has an important place in texts that report research and engage scholarship" (Maddalena 1) and can only made a negative thing by the context and the frequency of its use.

    Of course, like all things in writing, first person shouldn't be used excessively or inappropriately, especially not in academic reports or anything that is meant to be strictly objective. But the use of "I" in writing is an underrated tool that can help tie many disjointed pieces of writing together in a cohesive and clear fashion when used at the right moment with the right guidance whether in high school or college academic writing (as long as the assignment calls for it!).