Show me how smart you really are!

Mrs. K, a middle school science teacher, believes that in order to be respected as a professional, a person’s writing must be grammatically correct. Mrs. K said, “It is the only way you will come off as a competent and effective individual. Your writing level will be the level of intelligence people place you in.” This is why she stresses the importance of writing when working with her students. She tells them, “Show me how smart you really are!” Then makes them practice, practice, practice. Mrs. K brought up the fact that students aren’t getting taught enough about writing at all levels of schooling. In her district, 80% of the students will pass the state reading benchmark, but only 30% will pass the state writing benchmark.

Being a teacher, Mrs. K’s writing is mainly business professional. This includes reports, data analysis, personal letters, and professional correspondence. Mrs. K recently applied to graduate school with the hope of moving into a school administration position. This position will ask even more of her writing skills as she produces evaluations, personal records and business reports. It’s not surprising that the class in college she most accredits to her writing competency was a business writing class. The assigned marketing plans, grant writing, letters, and detailed research papers prepared her for her current work.