Every high school senior that is a few months away from becoming a freshman in college has the fear of not being able to write at the freshman college level.  As incoming freshman at a highly educational university you become inclined to ask yourself if you have been prepared well enough to succeed in writing all kinds of essays.  High school seniors begin show signs of doubt that their writing ability is not where the college Doctor or Professor feels that the freshmen should be writing at.  I am here to tell incoming freshman that possessing the fear of writing at the college level is normal, but the fear is not all what it is cracked up to be.  I will give you my personal encounters with the freshman fear and tell you that there is nothing to fear about writing college papers.  I want you to receive that first college writing assignment and once you have completed the assignment I want you to say it a piece of cake.

Before I entered college as a freshman I was terrified to think whether or not I had the capability to write at the college level as a freshman.  As I prepared to leave for college I asked myself was I scaffold enough over the course of 12 years to succeed at the level of college writing?  Before entering college I had no idea that the fear of writing at the college level was a common fear of most new freshman at a university.  My fear of writing came to me when I started to write college entrance essays for universities.

My fear of writing at the college level was partially because of my peers.  My parents played a major role in my fear, they stressed that writing in college was totally different from writing in high school.  My friends that were rising sophomores in college told me stories of their encounters of writing as freshman and the only bit of information I took away from their experience was that writing at the college level was dreadful.  After being stressed to about how important it was to write at a college and told scary stories from my friends I began to contemplate if I was ready to even to attend a university.

Little did I know that writing at a university level is not as hard as I was told it was.   Writing at the college level is just like writing as a senior in high school.  Doctors or Professors are not asking students to write novels, they simply give students a topic and expect them to elaborate on the topic given.  This is basically the same as in high school the only difference may be the number of pages the student is expected to write or the number of papers the student has to write.  If the incoming freshman goes to class, ask the Doctor or Professor questions, and reads the syllabus then writing at a college level will become natural to the freshman and the fear of writing at the college level will soon be conquered.  Once the fear is conquered the freshman will ask his or herself why they even stressed about writing at the university level to begin with.

As a freshman entering college, writing is not difficult.  Writing is only as hard as the student makes it out to be.  Getting the acceptance from the university should be a sign for the new freshman that they have the ability to write on a university level.  The university believes in you so you as a student should believe in yourself as well.  So, before you begin writing those college papers conquer the fear of writing and tell yourself that you possess the capability to write at any level of college writing.

When I was in high school, I never used a syllabus. I would always just pretend to read it and never actually pay attention to what was actually being discussed on the page. In high school that never really was a problem, I was just like everyone else. If a teacher wanted something done he or she would remind us four or five times at least. While this was convenient to myself and all those slackers around me, who never really bothered to read the thing, it kind of set me in a bad path for when I got to college.

When I got to college it was drilled into me pretty quickly that if I didn’t read the syllabus I’d be dead in the water. I didn’t know how right that information actually was, until I showed up to one of my classes and we immediately had a quiz on reading that was only posted on the syllabus. I quickly realized how important it was to always read the syllabus. As I began reading the syllabi for all my classes I began realizing these weren’t at all like the dinky little one sheets given out in high school. No. These were more like five to ten pages of vital information that needed to be made easily accessible as soon as possible. I began looking back at some of my older syllabi and I saw the dramatic differences and some of the similarities. High school syllabi are not at all as in depth as the ones you’ll get in college they won’t have the grading scale that that the professor uses and generally won’t have all the reading that you’ll be doing, with the exception of an AP or advanced studies programs. College syllabi will typically talk about the teachers expectations, as well as what you will generally be learning about with the readings, the dates of most if not all quizzes and tests. College syllabi will also have the assignments for that class and depending on the professor they will have places to check out for extra help or places to cite information for their particular school (MLA, APA or whatever the professor prefers). These are incredibly helpful and are always a great tool that you should definitely utilize, because usually if a professor is going to take the time to put something in their syllabus it will be expected that you use it. Reading only a little bit of the syllabus is like watching the movie to a story your supposed to be writing a book report on, you get some of the details, but it is lacking a significant part.  Your professor is here for you if you have any questions about what they have in their syllabus, they want to help you through the transition of becoming a Longwood student.

What you’ll learn is that when it comes to prepping for college it is always best to read the whole syllabi, and if you’re anything like me, you probably won’t want to but it really is for the best. It really helps to have a good strong start and you honestly cannot beat knowing what is going on in the class and what you will need.

If you decide to take my advice you will probably have a great start in college, but either way I wish you all the best and hope you excel here at this wonderful University.

It is always nerve-racking the first couple of weeks getting adjusted, but you figure it out just like you have every year. It’s just one more step up on the ladder you’ve been climbing your whole life, and at this point you’ve done it 12 times already, so no sweat. High school is mandatory (for the most part) and you are now in college because you want to be. Although there are differences in the structure and difficulty of writing from high school to college, I’ll show you what to look out for so you are feeling much more prepared during your transition.

Just about every college course is tied around the usage of language and good writing. If education is a ladder, high school is the support while college is the rungs; high school is a crucial building block tied into every stepping stone towards being prepared for college.

Whatever your schooling background is, does not matter in the long run. It may be more difficult in the beginning, but catching up won’t take long. I came from a non-college prep high school, so I was a little apprehensive going into my first writing class in college; English and writing have never been my strong suit. Because of this, I was unsure on when I should take my first English class. I was most nervous about forgetting what I had learned in High School or if I didn’t know enough. Looking back I can tell you that it is no big deal.

The difficulty of the writing classes you take in college are far from unmanageable, but they are different from high school English. The professors are going to have several classes to deal with, and sometimes hundreds of papers to grade. Your goal is to make your paper unique; to make it stand out while still following whatever format your teacher wants you to follow. Unlike high school, the grading in college is much tougher. You may have been able to get away with doing just one draft of your paper and writing it one or two days in advance, but now it is a little more requiring of you. To achieve a decent grade, you need to start your writing further in advance in order to give yourself time to make several drafts of your paper to catch all of your mistakes and imperfections. Preparation for the increased expectations can be achieved through tutoring, group study, or even reading more on your own.

Structure is an essential part of writing in both high school and college; the general layout of your papers will stay the same. You will still need an introduction, a body, and a conclusion. It is important to stick to your basics and build upon what you have. The works you need to prepare yourself for will generally be longer than what you have written in high school. It is also important to follow the requirements of the given assignment. Mistakes in that will be a harsh penalty to your grade. It helps if you write down notes and ideas when starting a paper or writing assignment so you can keep yourself on track with what the teacher expects from the paper.

Remember, this high school knowledge you used to climb the rugs of the education latter got you this far. Keep using the knowledge you’ve learned and continue climbing up. It won’t be easy, but retaining this writing advice is the best place you can start for your path to success.