(Research papers online at research paper service)
Even the concept of basic literacy is more of a sliding scale than a fixed standard. The most recent Ford Foundation commissioned study indicates that the standard of “functional” literacy needs to be revised upward, given the increased complexity of everyday life. (Atwell 101) There are many millions of Americans who are nowhere near competency. Such estimates reflect a trend, even if they are hard to take at face value. As society demands more, more are excluded almost by definition. This is true at various levels. For example, the movement toward compulsory continuing education for professionals will probably exclude competent individuals in the name of reform.
Teachers and administrators have the problem of setting reasonable expectations. At the college level, testing requirements usually occur at the end of the sophomore year, as a prerequisite for more advanced work. The extensive work on sentence structure, using techniques of sentence combining to teach students to form more complex sentences, runs into disagreement that this is an appropriate measure of better writing.
Until recent years, most educators took for granted the textbook definitions of formal expository prose alongside related forms such as business English. Students still write about personal experience, texts, past or current events, laboratory work, and so forth, in a way which allows them to reflect and analyze. The audience is, on the one hand, the instructor, and on the other hand, a “general” reader. (Rose et al 108) This audience has patience and sensitivity. No one questions that learning to write in this way is important for school success, a serious and appropriate concern, and for intellectual growth. Learning to reflect and analyze will never be outmoded.
Technical writing is definitely more powerful in its applications, although there is a trend to go too far in the direction of specialized jargon and specific formats. The stronger programs in technical writing, such as those at Carnegie-Mellon, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Texas A & M, avoid this extreme, and teach broad-based approaches to industrial and scientific writing. (George 109) However, such courses are not usually seen as general education as much as professional training, and the technical writing itself is frequently incomprehensible for non-specialists.
