Student Personal Statement

Quite honestly, though I am now in my second semester of SLP grad school here at ODU, I am still not exactly sure what kind of writing is required of me for this program and as an SLP out in the field, or how to do it. I did very little clinical writing during my CSD undergrad program (that is to say, none); I wrote several research papers, but they were all of the standard, MLA style papers that I had written in high school, and I was never assigned anything that required clinical writing. Last semester I was not in clinic so received no more opportunities to learn clinical writing skills than I did in my undergrad experience, though I wrote two diagnostic summary reports for two different classes and received a grade of B on both papers – an unacceptable grade, in my opinion. I was only able to receive even that grade because I found several examples of diagnostic summary reports and copied the format used in those examples; none of my professors gave me any instruction on the writing style I was expected to use before assigning the summaries, though my professors noted on the grading rubrics for those summaries that I did not display appropriate professional writing. I am starting my clinical practicum program this semester and I feel extremely anxious about my ability to write effective, professional reports for a variety of audiences, as well as frustrated by the lack of instruction that has been provided to me thus far.

Growing up I always had a love for writing. English was my favorite class and it was the subject I excelled the most at in school. That undoubtedly carried over with me to college. Writing at the college level was to no surprise more daunting than my writing assignments had been in high school. At Old Dominion University, ENGL 110C and ENGL 211C were two classes that helped guide me to be able to write beyond what I originally thought I was capable of. In addition, STEM 251G taught me how to write in APA format and has benefited me in every class since. As for writing in my major, CSD 449W with Dr. Michalek became my greatest asset in regards to professional writing. I had never written a SOAP note before until Dr. Michalek taught me how to complete one. She was transparent with exactly what would be expected of me in my future field. In this class she even provided useful tools for writing on the GRE. During my time in college I have grown as a writer both professionally as well as non-professionally. Although I do know the basics of how to write reports, my writing does not end there. Those skills have simply improved my writing abilities as a whole. In order to be a successful speech pathologist, the specific writing that is required must be organized and to the point. It also requires critical thinking and most importantly must be accurate. These are strengths every speech pathologist and audiologist should possess.

I have a liberal arts undergraduate degree, and I’m now taking classes in the more science-focused speech language pathology field. I started out in college with a completely different writing style and purpose than what I use now. Previously my writing was designed to be interesting to read with varying sentence lengths, appealing word choices (I was always using thesaurus.com) and dynamic grammatical structures. Now my reason for writing is mostly limited to reporting information, so I try to be as simple and to-the-point as I can. I find what I write now to be formulaic. In my speech language pathology courses much more attention in given to the content than to the style. My professors often give points for “professionalism” in writing assignments, meaning typo-free and attention paid to basic grammar, and that is the extent of consideration given to the technical aspect of writing. Writing assignments haven’t been featured much in any of my speech language pathology classes thus far, so I’m learning as I go along. I’ve heard there is a writing-intensive class that teaches the pertinent writing skills needed in the life of an SLP, but I’m not required to take that class as a student taking prerequisites for graduate program admission, so I haven’t taken it. From what I have heard from professionals in this field, I will be writing lots of session notes to inform patients, caregivers, doctors, etc. of my findings and recommendations after I have seen the patient. Due to the nature of this job (dealing with confidential or sensitive health-related information), I know the guidelines will be pretty strict. I think there is room for my personal observations about client behavior as long as they are as objective as possible. I’m nervous about writing reports for insurance providers with the right words to satisfy their requirements. I’m worried I’ll say the wrong thing and get in trouble.

Overtime my perception of writing has changed because I see the true purpose of it now. In high school it just seemed like a drag and saw no true use of it. Then when I got to college I saw the purpose of research writing and clinical writing. I have a minor in psychology and the writing that is required is different from speech pathology. I wrote a lot of research papers for my psychology courses and everything was evidence based. The topics are clearly different from speech pathology. In general I have not written as many papers in my speech pathology classes as I did in my psychology courses. I found that psychology papers are elaborate and very descriptive, while speech pathology writing is very direct. In speech pathology it is clinically based and I have no clinical vocabulary. Taking CSD 449W really helped me in my writing skills for the field but I still feel unprepared if placed in a real therapy environment. I am curious for how it will be in the real environment because it is always different than what is taught in the classroom. I know I will adapt and learning the writing style for my field but I will probably feel unprepared. I am aware that in the field I will need to be subjective, objective, and very professional. I am going to have to learn a style of writing to protect myself legally and to not be offensive to the families. I am nervous about that. Writing in college has been relatively easy because it is well explained and practiced quite often. Throughout CSD 449W I got to practice the SOAP note format in multiple times, which made me feel more comfortable with it. I am nervous about making observations by not writing enough or too much. I know what is expected of me for the field but I just do not think I will be at that level when I graduate. Hopefully, graduate school helps me with my writing skills and I do think it will give me a great foundation for writing. But nothing will compare to when you are actually doing an evaluation and trying to figure what to write down. Then writing an IEP or goals for the therapy sessions to come. I personally lack professional vocabulary and sound too casual when I write. So my vocabulary will need to expand for me prosper in my writing. I am aware of the importance of writing in my field and taught how it is a necessity. My professors have all emphasized that for me. Writing in my field will not just be observations but also emails, notes, insurance, and to doctors. I intend on working in a hospital after graduate school so I am going to have to be aware of clinical vocabulary, specifically acronyms. So far my professors have done a great job on teaching me the writing style for my field. My original perception of writing entering college to now has changed drastically. Writing for my field is a necessity and I have to be good at it. My writing has become more concise over time.

My perception of writing at the college level has evolved over time due to the shift in register. When first entering college and taking English courses, the style of writing was very enticing and fun. The goal was to create and fluent story that consisted of language that was fruitful. Now that I am entering into my higher level courses within my major, that has changed. The tone of my writing is now much more formal and professional. The goal with writing is for my profession and to sound formal and include vocabulary that would be used in the field. Taking CSD 449W opened my eyes to a completely different style and production of writing. Post graduation I plan to enter Special Education, the same type of style would be used in that setting as well. IEPs, reports of progress, and data collection are all examples of ways that I would still use a formal register and a professional style and tone within my writing.

In grade school I hated writing, simply because I did not think I was good enough to write correctly. Growing up, my teachers always corrected my papers, and often said that I had too much information, or I did not include enough information, causing me to be stuck on what the correct amount of information and description was. I was always confused as to where the line of not explaining enough and explaining too much and being too repetitive for the reader. When I came to college I was not very confident in my writing skills, because I assumed that everyone else was better than me. Since I been at Old Dominion University, I realized that I do have the skills to write papers acceptable for college. After writing papers in my college level classes, the overall feedback was better than I thought it would be. Many teachers did not have a lot of corrections or preferences for my writing. Eventually, I slowly started to become more confident in myself and my writing skills that I learned over the years. Now that I am more comfortable I am able to change and test other word choices without feeling that I will fail the assignment. The writing style of Speech Language Pathology differs from my other classes because it is better for the information to be short and dense rather than lengthy and wordy. In my 449W class, I learned that it is both easier and faster for clinicians to read short experts of a lot of information rather than have to read information about a client that is long and drawn out. It also helps to organize the information in a way that first introduces the client and flows from there. At the end, of the piece you include recommendation, personal thoughts, and future plans of the client. In some of my other classes, the writing was usually creative, where I had to create stories, or help vividly describe a scene of something that I previously read. In other classes it was more important for the information to be descriptive to the audience and for it to flow easily. Also, sometimes the writing was more of a report on a reading where I summarize what I read to where the audience can have enough information without reading the entire report. In report writing, not only do you include what you read, but you also include your personal thoughts on what you thought about the information and even possibly how you would change it. In my future career, I plan on clinically writing. Clinical writing is somewhat similar to writing a report, because in both you summarize what you read and what happened in a session, for others to read and know what happened if they were not there. At the end of clinical writing you also include personal thoughts and recommendations for the client. As a possible future Speech Language Pathologist I will mostly be writing to colleagues, so having short dense and easy to read notes are better than the long drawn out pieces.

During college, writing hasn’t been my strongest area. I always dread having to write but I have learned in my major courses how important it will be in my future. Back in high school and younger than that, writing was always seen to me as story telling. It was either fictional or expression of your thoughts about a topic. Since beginning college and doing research papers and writing for observations in my field, I have come to learn that writing now is more about discussing findings or a way to tell others about something. Writing has become easier now since looking at it in a different light because it’s easier to tell someone about facts and observations than it is to make up a story. As said before, writing in my major courses has consisted of observations and findings in research. Other classes, like English classes, are less about writing your observations but more about stories or discussions of topics in literature. As an SLP in the future, I imagine I will be doing quite a bit of writing about what I observe during sessions with my clients or about research I do in my field. Previously I have taken a class about how to write in my major and it gave me a lot of insight as to how to write as a clinician versus writing as a student in college. In that class, I learned about how to use more professional language in my writings and how to explain in great detail about something you observed. Learning to be as specific as possible in professional writing was another thing I learned and it was helpful. Understanding that someone will be reading your paper to understand what happened in a therapy session or to understand research you have done and what you found made it much easier to write. Knowing I have to be as descriptive as possible was a big insight for me. I imagine once I am involved in a clinical setting, that I will be doing a lot of writing to discuss things of this nature and I hope to be prepared for those moments. I look forward to learning more about professional writing as an SLP or Audiologist in this course to further the background I already have on writing in my major.

One thing I know about writing is that it is a key skill you must learn in undergrad and you must master the skill if you plan on moving into graduate studies. It is a skill because it can be improved and practiced. There are mechanics such as parts of speech, punctuation, word order and flow. It contains rules. It is the foundation before it can become an art or a science. It is how you request, comment, reject, state and inform. Learning to write has become so important it is a class in every grade in elementary, middle and high school, you even take it again in college. After you take it every year in primary school, you’d think you would have learned it all and never have to study it again. Wrong. As I stated before, it is a skill, which mean it can always be improved. I’ve always done well in writing but I have exceeded my own standards since attending Old Dominion University. My papers have lengthened since I’ve been at the university, with ten pages being my longest paper. My vocabulary has even expanded using words my professors and peers have taught me. I have even taken a grammar class and learned parts of speech. Although writing is not my favorite task it is imperative. In almost every class I have taken if not all, I have written some sort of essay or answered a short answer question. I have written more papers in my general education courses than my major classes. I have written research papers, persuasive paper, biographies etc. I am currently a junior and have only wrote a handful of papers in my major. This I am fine with. I consider it a perk not to have to write a paper every week. I know as I take more classes and eventually go to graduate school, I will write more. One of the key things graduate schools look at in the admissions process if your writing score from your GRE. This wouldn’t be such as huge factor in the decision process if it wasn’t important. This will help prepared me for my field as a Speech-Language Pathologist. As a Speech-Language Pathologist I may help write IEP’s, notes on a patient, dietary plans, results of an assessment, grant proposals, and research. There are endless times where I am going to have to write as a Speech-Language Pathologist. There are probably more occasions that I haven’t even thought of. I will be even teaching others how to write. Not like an English teacher would by showing them “What”, but as a Speech-Language Pathologist by instructing “How”. How do you write with a language disorder? How do you write with a nervous system condition? How do you write after traumatic brain injury? These are the questions that speech therapist answer in terms of treatment. Speech-Language Pathologists are educators and teach their students how Speech-Language Pathologist should write. I believe writing is necessary and expands all throughout the scope of practice for a Speech-Language Pathologist.

My major is Speech Pathology & Audiology and I feel like I have learned quite a bit about writing in this field. I’ve learned that it’s going to take more than being a good writer to sufficiently write as a speech pathologist. As a clinician, I will have to write as a professional! If my writing is not up to par patients, family members, other professionals, etc. will not take me or my expertise seriously.
As a speech pathologist, I will need to know how to proficiently write out observations during assessments, referrals, treatment plans, amongst many other things. It will be my job to pay attention to my audience and know how to write in a way that permits parents, patients, and/or other professionals to understand.
Writing as a clinician is very scary to me. However, as I gain experience and become more comfortable I think writing will be one of my strong suits as an SLP. After taking CSD classes, I realize that when writing as a clinician it’s imperative to be organized, clear, and most importantly know what it is that I’m writing about. I’ve also learned that it’s important to know and use your medical terminology, which is one of the things that I really have to work on.
My perception of writing at the college level has definitely changed over time. In high school and when I first entered college I loved writing. It was the subject that came easiest to me. I liked how straightforward the topics were. Even when I wasn’t sure what to write about I was always able to find a way to write something that was decent. However, in this field it takes a lot of prior knowledge, research, understanding of concepts, and the ability to analyze situations to be a good writer.
Honestly, when I’m limited with time and patience I rather do an assignment for a non CSD class. When writing for a non CSD class I’m able to pull out my laptop, look at a few notes for a few minutes, and then just start typing away. It’s easy for me to come up with things to write about and get an A on these assignments. However, when it comes to CSD writing assignments I might as well not open a word document until at least 45 minutes later. Because most likely I’m going to have to refer to my notes, use google, and gather my thoughts before even beginning to write the assignment.
Out of all of the classes that I’ve taken so far I definitely think CSD 449 is the class that gave me the biggest preview of what it’s like to write like a real SLP. Writing SOAP notes after watching real-life video sessions really gave me insight into what it’s like to write as an SLP. It was overwhelming at times. However, it was the class that led me to think that I will be a good clinical writer with practice and experience. In other words, as I previously mentioned I’m not a great clinical writer yet, but as I become more comfortable with the ins and outs of the field and the appropriate terminology I think I will become better at it.

As a Speech- Language Pathology major, I have learned a lot about writing in the major and writing in college. When I first started college, I was under the impression that writing lengthy research papers would be the bulk of my assignments for my classes. As it turns out and as time has progressed through college my perception of writing has changed because I have learned that not all writing for college is research papers or literature reviews. Most of my general education courses involved assignments of writing research papers. The research paper assignments were basically a “how to” for appropriately writing a research paper. The content of the research was important, however, it felt like the main point was to understand how to effectively write a research paper in the correct format. In all my college courses, I have learned about the importance of writing professionally, properly citing the information obtained in the paper, and the correct format needed for various assignments. While approaching my major courses, my view of writing in college shifted because we have writing assignments that reflect the type of documents that a clinician will write. My idea of writing in college has changed greatly since beginning my major classes. Understanding the importance of proper word choice, in order to convey a concise message is something I learned in my writing intensive major class. During that class, we completed several writing assignments that were representative of the types of writing that would be done in the profession. Writing in the major is a lot more focused on the clinical aspects of writing, such as completing assessments and making referrals. While literature reviews and research papers are incorporated into that, I feel that my major courses have a heavier focus on the clinical aspects of writing. After taking that class, I do feel like I have a better idea on writing for the profession. However, I do feel that I have more to learn about writing as a Speech-language Pathologist and a professional.

I am currently a graduate student here at ODU. I attended a liberal arts college, so I had many opportunities to write within different areas in my university. Writing within my major was very different than writing for my English or Philosophy classes. I quickly came to realize that writing for my major included SOAP notes, and diagnostic reports which require more client based information. Writing for an English class or philosophy class was less structured and very open with what information went into it as long as it answered the overall prompt. I took on a minor where we wrote many reflections on articles that we read each week. Those reflections were very informal which was very different than writing papers for my major, which were very formal. I do think that having a liberal arts education really helped me develop my writing skills, because I had so many opportunities to write within different educational areas, each having their own preferred style. In undergrad, I had many opportunities to write within my major. I am grateful that I had professors that required us to write diagnostic reports, SOAP notes, and goals for clients. It gave me an opportunity to learn and develop clinical writing skills prior to entering graduate school. I think this made my transition to graduate school easier. I have not started clinic yet, but I have had a couple opportunities to write diagnostic reports and goals. Having to write a couple of them in undergrad gave me more confidence in my ability to write them for my classes in graduate school.

Growing up, I was always a fairly good writer, and actually enjoyed expressing myself through words. I did spoken word and creative writing in my younger days, but as I grew older, I started to slowly grow out of my love for writing. I had convinced myself that engineers need to be good at math and did not need strong writing skills at all. After all, I decided to become an engineering major and not an English major (mainly because I was so sick of writing essays and research papers). As I started my journey as an engineering major, I soon realized that I was incorrect in my assumption. And not only as an engineer did I need strong writing skills, in terms of strong analytical skills and being able to put my ideas, designs, results, etc into writing, but I also needed strong verbal skills. I needed to be able to express my work as an engineer through WORDS, specifically words of my own (because the words of someone else would be plagiarism lol). In many of my engineering-specific courses, professors would assign writing assignments such as lab reports, reflections, and small research assignments. I hate every bit of it, but it has led me to being more descriptive when explaining procedures, experiments, and things alike.
The writings in my engineering classes differ from the writing I’ve done primarily in the past in the sense that most of the writing that I now do is objective and mostly rooted in fact. There is no longer room for individuality, and I hate it! I’m only kidding. However, in most of my writing in the past, there was “no wrong answers” and my writing was based on my interpretation of a subject or topic. Whereas now at a college level, there are very much so wrong answers, and there is not a lot of room to express myself through word choice and diction. I can no longer be sarcastic and expressive, and I am now restricted to being super serious and formal all the time and to get straight to the point when I’m writing. Which is a good thing, because I tend to ramble and get off topic from time to time in a lot of my more abstract writing assignments. It’s actually very helpful because I am able to transfer these writing skills that I learn in the class room into my daily life when I’m texting or typing. Being in college has opened my eyes to the fact that I need to work on being just descriptive enough, but not too much. I feel as though I will be writing in this similar way through out my career. I will most likely be writing about my designs and plans (and findings, if I decide to do research). I can expect to have to do a report or write up on a project that I might work on. I’m hoping most of my writing will be able to be “performed”. In other words, I hope that I am able to verbally speak my writings through presentations throughout my career as a civil engineer. I’m hoping to work in design so hopefully use my public speaking, writing, and design skills as my holy trinity.

I used to fancy myself a passionate and flowing author in previous English and Linguistic classes. Now, I second guess every sentence I type, and think through every word choice that I make. I only allow myself to use the most succinct and common words available to me. I’m quite sure my vocabulary has deteriorated. While I believe that overall my technical writing has improved due to these considerations, the stringent and straightforward writing style necessitated by this profession does not come naturally to me.

I think about writing differently now than I did for most of my life. Writing is no longer a medium of artistic expression, but it is a means to an information exchange. In high school and through undergraduate school, I believed in my ability to express thoughts and feelings in novel and outstanding ways. As I progressed through my neuroscience degree, I started to lose this belief. Starting this graduate program, I have found that I am a mediocre science and technical writer at best, and that any passion I had for writing is dying. At least now I am severely aware of how my adaptations to this new kind of writing style will affect my professional development and my chances at future careers.

I believe in my future careers I will be writing progress notes, tracking data, interacting with colleagues and maybe writing a few grants. I hope that writing progress notes and tracking data will eventually become natural and formulaic to me as I gain experience. I do not believe that interacting with colleagues in writing will get easier for me, as I often find professional written interactions to be dull at best and aggressive at worst. Writing a grant is not something I have any experience with, but I believe that should a cause arise I will meet the challenge.

As I fearlessly entered college with a solid foundation in the “hamburger model” of writing, I quickly learned there was more than just ketchup, lettuce, and topic sentences. My writing evolved the most at the University of Mary Washington, where I earned my first degree in English with a minor in linguistics. Now, as a second-degree seeking student in Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology at Old Dominion University, I am learning a more technical approach to writing. In combining the disciplines of English, Linguistics, and Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology, I hope to develop the ability to effectively write in the arts and sciences. Gaining the ability to be a well-rounded, versatile writer will benefit me in my future career as a Speech-Language Pathologist.
My perception of writing at the college level progressed from one of anxiety to a comfortable way of expressing my thoughts and opinions. The amount of English and Linguistics classes I took helped expose me to a more relaxed form of writing. I learned there was no specific framework in successful writing. The more I read, whether works from famous authors or peers, the more comfortable I became with my own writing. Guidance from professors and peer-review workshops also aided in my development as a writer. Majoring in English gave me ample amount of practice to enhance my writing abilities. However, within the field of English I experienced different forms of writing. My creative writing courses differed from my literature courses. Written work in literature courses required concise writing with lots of examples to back up arguments or claims, while written work in creative writing course could take any form. Creative writing can be broken down even further into fiction and poetry.
After returning to college after a five-year hiatus, I am less confident in my writing abilities. This is due to my lack of experience in the style of writing required in the Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology major. I have not yet experienced a substantial writing assignment, but I know writing in the field is required to be more technical and objective. The writing I accomplished so far comes in the form of abstracts. These abstracts are short written works, broken up into titled sections allowing for brief summaries on the presented material. Science-based writing is important in expressing diagnosis and treatment plans to patients, parents, and insurance companies. Writing in a medical-based field does not require flowery diction, but precise terminology in order to allow for collaboration with other professionals. Well-written reports allow for a quick turnover from one therapist to the next, if necessary. A great therapist also has the ability breaking down technical jargon into layman terms in order to effectively convey information to those outside of the profession. However, technical writing in the field of Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology and literary criticism share a characteristic in providing and elaborating on solid evidence. A major difference in writing comes in form of sourcing. Migrating from MLA format to APA format requires a new approach to citing material. As I continue in the field, I will gain more experience with the technical aspects of writing.

Do you have a sense of what type of writing you’ll be doing in your career?

As an engineer student, I’ve been told that “spelling is not important”, or “I’m an engineer not an English major”. I do know however that the way one communicates on paper can be a form of a first impression: better make it a good one. it may be the difference between getting or losing a contract.
Writing papers for my major is not much different than writing for any other course in a sense that it has to make sense, have an intro and a conclusion, and overall make the reader clear on what’s being said. The difference however it’s the technical stuff: the data, the charts, the ability to reproduce your findings, very little room for personal interjections. Engineering is definitely not a romantic subject.
For my career path i expect to do a lot of technical writing and overall communications to clients which require professional interactions.

English was never one of my favorite classes. I could write well enough, but I did not enjoy it. I figured writing in college would be the same if not worse for me. In my introductory English classes at Old Dominion this belief held true. Most English classes require that you write a research paper on a topic you may or may not know about. If you are lucky and get a topic you know about or are interested in you may end up arguing from the point of view opposite of your own just like I had to in one of my classes. I am glad that this is not going to be the type of writing I will have to do in my career. Although, I have seen an improvement in my writing skills due to having to write these papers. I no longer see writing in college as daunting as I did before. I know that I can write what is asked of me. I also see the writing that I will have to do in my profession being the format of writing that I prefer.
From the information I have gotten in my courses thus far it appears that most of the writing that I will be doing will be in the form of reports. I did a project based off a case study in one class that gave me an idea of a type of writing I will be asked to do in the future. I will be taking the information I gather through either research or assessments and work with a patient and turning it into a summary and report my findings. The types of writing that I have done in my major courses have been like this rather than persuasive like in a lot of my English classes. I am not arguing to sway opinions over laws. I write the information that I learned through the class to inform the reader. Just like I will have to do to inform those necessary when I get into my career.
I will be informing the parents or whom ever it may concern the results of assessments, the progress that is being made in therapy, and the recommendation for the child. If I participate in any research I will be writing a report to inform colleagues and those interested what the findings are. This may not be all the writing that I will be doing but it seems it will be the majority. I feel that after this class and my other major courses I will have both the knowledge and the ability to write whatever will be asked of me in my field.

Over a span of three years my writing style, tone, and purpose has changed drastically. As a freshman and sophomore, the main focus of my writing was merely subjective. I was required to develop personal viewpoints on various topics and expected to demonstrate a concrete understanding. For example, in a 211 English literature course, I was required to read an article that discussed a current controversial topic and write a personal response to the issue. The paper did not possess any evidence, facts, or data to support my argument; it was solely my opinion. I implemented fundamental essay format and basic vocabulary to create a standard academic tone. In addition, in my 110 English course, I was expected to demonstrate the ability to effectively respond to a prompt. However, as a junior, I am required to shift my focus of writing to be more objective. To prepare myself for a career as a speech-language pathologist my major courses encompass curriculum that closely relates to my intended career. Therefore, the writing assignments concentrate on using different styles, diction, tone, construction, and purpose that are relevant to the field. I was required to complete two intensive writing courses; one explained the foundation and building blocks associated with professional writing whereas the other utilized the same concepts in relation to performing written tasks as a speech-language pathologist, such as SOAP notes. Both courses greatly differ from the writing courses completed as freshman and sophomore. Now, when writing SOAP notes and abstracts I have to remove personal bias because the field of speech-language pathology is an evidence-based practice. A SOAP note is simply a summary of a therapy session and how the speech-language pathologist can augment the client’s success. As a speech-language pathologist it is required that the SOAP note is written with a professional tone and demonstrates a concrete understanding of terminology, what was observed, and how to properly use applied knowledge in order to benefit the client. Also, when writing abstracts to highlight the key concepts of an academic journal, I have to remain unbiased. It is vital that my current writing style is strictly objective and emphasizes facts, data, and evidence along with avoiding personal opinion. The basic to professional writing are used in all of my major courses. It is a requirement that I have at least one writing assignment that allows myself to demonstrate my competence to write as a professional speech-language pathologist. Moreover, it strengthens my writing and it aids in developing other skills, such as editing and revising. As a result of my major courses, I understand the importance of peer reviews and self-reflections. The editing process has become a necessity in my writing because of its impact. Revising my writing helps avoid common and overlooked errors, such as redundancy and grammar. Without a basic understanding and practice of professional writing, it would be extremely difficult to perform the task of writing as a speech-language pathologist. Altogether, the writing courses I have completed in college has allowed myself to be multifaceted and well equipped for a career as a speech-language pathologist.

Throughout my life, writing has undeniably been one of my strong suits. Classes that required me to write were some of my favorites as they gave me opportunities to excel. Prior to starting college, I had a preconceived notion of collegiate writing, shaped by my high school teachers. At Old Dominion, I allowed the preconceptions to shape the way I viewed my writing assignments, and I was undoubtedly more cautious than I should have been. After completing my first official college writing assignment, I found that the task was not as taxing as I had expected.
As a speech pathology major, I have found that the writing requirements in the major do not differ very much from the requirements in the gen ed. classes that I have taken. For the most part, all of my classes have required research analysis using APA format. I feel that it is important to note that I learned more about APA format in my STEM 251G class than I did in any my major classes, which is mildly disappointing because of the amount of emphasis that this particular major puts on APA. In my CSD 449W class I was able to become more familiar with the kind of writing that will be necessary as a practicing speech pathologist. This class allowed me to become more familiar with SOAP notes and how to apply research to actually treating a client. However, while I feel that CSD 449W provided a strong base, other classes within the major should have elaborated more on the subject rather than focusing more on research articles. Throughout my time here I have learned from professors that most of my writing in the major will be to keep patients, caregivers, doctors, and insurance companies properly informed. Knowing this, I feel as though I still do not have a solid understanding of how to produce this type of writing, but I do hope to continue to learn more about it.

I have always enjoyed writing, and it has been a favored subject of mine throughout my education. I began taking college courses in 2008. During the past 10, years my perception of writing at the college level has evolved. Writing papers and reports have become a less tedious part of pursuing a degree than in the beginning of my college career. The changes in course level and complexity have introduced a new appreciation for written assignments that are more professionally applicable. I feel that the written requirements of CSD courses are stricter; however, less lengthy than those of general courses, whose written requirements tend to be more geared toward page length with less of a focus on content.
The writing required of Communication Sciences and Disorders courses are vastly different than any other general courses I have taken. The ability to write clearly and concisely is valued over using excessive detail and flowery language for the sole purpose of meeting minimum page requirements. In fact, in the majority of CSD courses I have taken, a 2-page maximum page limit is usually mandated for any writing assignments. In my experience, most general courses typically have longer minimum page requirements, sometimes between 6 and 8 pages. It is understandable that professors would prefer a succinctly written report, because it better prepares students for the type of professional writing used in the career. The major courses I have taken have prepared me for professional writing in a practical way. Many of the CSD courses incorporate application-based instruction with theory-based instruction that require students to write, act, and think like a clinician.
I believe I have an accurate approximation of what is expected of written work in the field of speech and language pathology. It is imperative that speech language pathologists/audiologists be able to clearly convey information to clients, fellow clinicians, and clinicians of other disciplines as it pertains to the profession. Clinicians are expected to write client goals, therapy plans, diagnostic reports, progress reports, case notes, discharge reports, and various other important documents. An expert understanding of clinical language used both in composition and comprehension of information in professionally written documents is vital, as it directly relates to their competency. Clinicians are expected to write reports in an objective manner that can be verified and evidenced through their case notes and diagnostic reports. Additionally, speech language pathologists must be able to work collaboratively with other professionals and members of IEP teams, including parents. Being able to take clinically written information, including scores from standardized assessments, and deciphering it for parents is a valuable skill for speech language pathologists.

Growing up, English has always been one of my favorite subjects. Although I did not begin writing in my major courses until very recently, I have always enjoyed writing creatively. As I have progressed in my college career, it has become apparent that writing as a Speech Pathologist is mostly based on research and evidence. In my CSD courses, I have written several summaries and various abstracts on research articles relevant to the subject of the course I was taking. So far, I have learned that the writing process cannot be rushed because it takes time to read sources, analyze the data and convey the results into your own words. I understand that is very important to always cite all gathered information, and to be meticulous about the sources that I use.

On the other hand, much of the writing I have completed in my minor classes, (Special Education), has been based on analysis of a student in case studies, and what approaches and goals to pursue based on their needs and observed strengths. This type of writing requires prior knowledge of terms and jargon used within the SPED and CSD professions, as well as the ability to use what you know about disorders and teaching practices and tools to give recommendations. It is imperative in both types of writing that evidence is provided for the choices you make and that the information is displayed clearly, especially when filling out legal forms that must be approved by parents, superiors, and other colleagues.

I believe writing in my future career differs from the writing I have done previously because it relies heavily on data and current practices and approaches being used in the field. Before college, most of the writing I did was creative or based on any topic I wanted it to be on. It is always easier in my opinion to write about something I chose, since I am usually passionate about my topics. I am currently in CSD 449W, where the goal is to learn how observe patient interactions, and to write notes effectively as a clinician based on sessions and observations made so that progress can be documented accurately. This type of writing may prove to be challenging at first since I have never had to document a session before, but I am looking forward to learning the tricks of the trade and how to utilize them in my future. I am not sure I am completely aware of the writing required in the professional world as an SLP, but I still have a long way to go before graduating with a Master’s degree. Hopefully, by then, I will have had much more experience with writing diagnostically as a professional SLP so that I can communicate precisely.

Natalia Croom 1/15/2018
During my secondary education years, I was never comfortable writing. My teachers would often say that I had a skill for writing. My opinion however, often differed because writing seemed to be one of my weaker subjects. When I would write I would often feel I would go over the topic, but it seemed that my writing was adequate enough to the teacher, and conveyed that I understood the writing prompt.
My perception of college writing has grown over the past four years. In the beginning, it was hard to adjust to the type of writing most professors wanted, but having a guideline helped me understand how to format my papers. I have become more aware of my writing, and the importance of the content that is being delivered. The further I progress in my major the more in depth, and in tune I was becoming with the information being conveyed to the potential reader. Technical writing was never a mastered skill of mine, and quite frankly, I am still adjusting and growing to this writing style. I know that writing is important especially technical writing in field of Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology.
Writing in my major courses seem much easier than writing in any other course because I love the field of Communication Sciences and Disorders. I am continuously learning about my field of interest, and there is an unlimited amount of information available for me to access and describe within the topic. I am very comfortable with writing about the topic, because there are many ideas present and relevant to discuss regarding communication disorders. I have had some experience with writing within my major. The class that has introduced me to the skill of writing within my major is Writing for Speech-Language Pathology (CSD 449W). This course is writing intensive, and it served as a guiding point for write-ups of therapy sessions. I often took notes about the sessions that I observed, and key things in the session that were working for the client, and things that were not beneficial for the client for various reasons. I think this class helped me see that doing therapy for clients is trial and error, and once a technique works for that particular client it is ideal to note and recommend specific techniques. I feel the more practice that students receive writing in their major makes us more aware of the skill, and help eliminate linguistically incorrect grammar.
This writing is also beneficial for the clients because as a future clinician, I will be able to relay messages to the client and their families with appropriate terminology that is not intimidating, and easy for them to understand. The most important factor of writing in Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology is making sure that the client understands their disorder, and how the professional is working towards helping the client communicate to other individuals efficiently. The goal is to make sure we are serving the client and following the ethical guidelines of our governing body, the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA).

I attended a music conservatory for my undergraduate studies, where 8-12 page papers were routine assignments. I found writing to be beautiful, as I filled my papers- my analyzations of art and music- with what I would now call “fluff”. When I first returned to school for my second degree in Speech-Language pathology, I was pleasantly surprised, albeit shocked, to find that I would mostly be required to write 1-2 page papers. I thought writing for a Speech-Language specific audience would be a breeze. What I found, however, is that “fluff” and beautiful adjectives are not what professionals in our field are looking for. The doctors, linguists, and teachers with whom we work will want facts delivered to them in a concise, accurate manner.
In the spring of 2017, I was enrolled in a speech-language pathology, writing-intensive course titled “Intro to Clinical Procedures in Speech-Language Pathology”, CSD 449W. During the course of the semester, videos of therapy sessions were presented to the class. Each video that was presented was to be analyzed and written about in the most succinct manner possible. Over the course of the semester, with each critique from my professor, I watched my writing improve. At the start of the semester, my papers were lengthy and filled with unnecessary adjectives. By the end of the semester, my analysis of each therapy session was professional, concise, and only included the most important details and findings. This course was intrinsic in my understanding of the manner in which a speech-language pathologist should write.
The fall of 2017 marked the start of my graduate school journey. Two of my courses expected me to have an understanding of the manner in which a diagnostic summary is written. When the diagnostic summary assignments were assigned, I felt comfortable with the overall concept and was excited to begin practicing my writing for the clinical setting. Writing diagnostic summaries was a very new task for me, however, and took me an extraordinarily long time to complete, due to the fact that I had never been exposed to or been required to write a diagnostic summary. I must have spent 3 hours researching the manner in which a diagnostic summary is written. Once I had a basic understanding of the formatting and information required of me, I began writing, which took me another couple of hours to execute.
As I head into my second semester of graduate school, I’m finding that my understanding of what is required of me, in terms of writing, is simpler than I originally expected. My professors are not tricking me when they ask for 1-2 pages double spaced. My professors want to see what I know and how I process and translate my knowledge. In this way, my understanding of the material I am presented does not require extraneous words and details. With each writing assignment, I am feeling more comfortable with what will be expected of me in the professional realm.

Having completed a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology from ODU back in 2015, I started my Speech Pathology leveling classes thinking that I wouldn’t have a problem deciphering how and what was necessary to convey appropriate information to patients, caregivers, and other Speech Pathologists. Although I have not been exposed to very much writing in my Speech Pathology classes so far, I realize that throughout college, my writing as a Psychology major was shaped by words such as flow and creativity. Even the research papers assigned as a Psychology major required the paper to be focused on “organization” or “interest of the reader”. Now, I’m being introduced to scientific writing. The scientific writing of a Speech Pathologist mostly consists of reports, therapy plans, and notes. I’ve quickly realized that writing in the major of Speech Pathology needs to be clear, concise, brief, and comprehensive. I think of the phrase, “short and to the point”.
Although this is a different writing style than I’m used to, I’m very much looking forward to learning about how to most effectively write in the major. I’m also a little nervous because this way of writing is new to me, and it’s something that I don’t have any experience with (yet). Since I started began writing in elementary school, I have been told that I should be writing to entertain, not just to convey information. As with anything brand new, I believe that it will take some time to get used to this way of writing as I adjust my thinking. I’m confident that I will finish my Speech Pathology leveling classes with the skills to write effectively as a future Speech Pathologist, despite these new and different expectations.

I am currently a junior at Old Dominion University and I have taken multiple writing and grammar courses since I have been in college. One of my writing courses was specifically for my major which is Speech and Language Pathology. Grammar wise, I have learned how to write professionally which I did not do well in high school. I have also expanded my knowledge with word choice. My writing class, particularly for my major, seemed to be the most helpful class in regards to writing in my major. Speech and Language Pathology requires a person to write out a report on their patient. This does not mean a whole research paper. My teacher taught the class to be straightforward and to not use “fluff” words to make the report longer. I think that is the most important thing that I learned from my writing courses in the past couple of years. Even on research-based papers, it is important to be straightforward with the word choices. In my writing course, we were required to observe videos of a therapy session and then write a report on what we watched. She graded the class on how efficiently we wrote about the patient. I still think I have a lot to learn when it comes to writing in my major, but I am already pretty comfortable with it.
I think the most challenging thing when I write in my major is knowing what exactly I should be writing about. When I did take my writing class I struggled with the format. I did not know how in depth I needed to go into the therapy session so I tended to get points taken off for that. My teacher also took points off for small grammatical errors which could just be fixed with revision.
One of my strong suits is research papers. I am really good at picking out certain information and applying it to different concepts. I am also very good at sifting out what exactly I need to write about and which words are “fluff” words. Overall I have been a pretty good writer, even in high school. It is one of my strong suits but of course, I can always get better at it.
Since high school, I have veered away from the intro, 3 body paragraphs, and then a conclusion. The past three years have taught me to write and when you start to shift a topic or idea that is when you start a new paragraph. My writing courses have taught me to be more of a fluent writer than I was coming into college.

During my time as an undergraduate I’ve maintained the perception that writing is an essential component to our daily work. We use it to take notes during most of our lectures, or review for a test. It’s incorporated in our emails, and the text messages that we exchange with others. Writing is important, and the quality of how we write matters. I have had the pleasure of observing assorted styles of writing, as it relates to a specific subject (Psychology, Speech-Language Pathology, Special Education).

In my earlier stage of undergrad (Freshmen Year) I took English courses ENGL 110C, and ENGL 211. The professors encouraged us to indulge in creative writing. This meant, most of my works, except for two Toulmin Argument style papers I wrote, were opinion based. I was allowed the opportunity to expound upon topics that related dearly to myself (Dance, Fictional Characters, Creative interpretation of life narrated through the eyes of another)

In ENGL 350, which I took Fall 2016, I learned the history of Grammar within the English language. The professor focused primarily on the breakdown of words; and it how each of them were indicative of one another as it related the syntactic structure of sentences (clauses, types of phrases, conjunctions). The course always felt very intense. However, once I begin to understand the use of writing, specific to the Speech-Language Pathology major I enjoyed it. I remember taking CSD 449W, with Dr. Michalek, a writing intensive course, designed to teach us how to exemplify professional writing as a Speech-Language Pathologist, by using the appropriate formats. The course was different than any other English course I had taken because though I was required to use proper grammar, some of the formats would only require short hand notes. There is specific terminology within the Speech-Language field that clinicians use to describe their cases. Eventually, I became familiar with the terms as we continued to discuss the different methods that used during therapy sessions.

Though I wouldn’t exactly label it as “profound”, but the distinct difference between the writing in my English courses, versus that which is required in my Speech major, and Psychology minor is, MLA and APA formatting. I had always been accustomed to MLA style of writing during high school, only using APA on occasions. Once I officially began using APA format within my major course classes I enjoyed it. Personally, it is the least complicated style of writing.

The career I am aiming to obtain is a School Counselor position; specializing in middle school, high school aged population. I know thus far that I will be responsible for keeping specific students’ cases on file, simultaneously providing written reports regarding their behavior. They will also include any progress they make academically, or socially. The notes I provide will be reviewed by other members apart of administration, and perhaps parents. I will be crucial that I maintain a unbias, professional tone throughout the writing I provide. I am also aware that if/when I send emails to fellow coworkers, or even a head administrator, for example, I will need to maintain to respectful tone, and adhere to main topic, rather than discussing irrelevant matters.

My perception of writing at the college level has become less daunting over time. Before coming to college the idea of writing college-level papers and essays was incredibly overwhelming to me. I am currently in my senior year of college and have realized since being in college that I was very well prepared by my high school teachers. As is custom, I was required to take english courses every year of high school. My sophomore year English class was an honors course coupled with Advanced Placement World History. What I learned in my sophomore English class set the foundation for my future as a writer. In my junior year of high school I then took Advanced Placement Language. This was a course specifically designed for students who wanted to improve their writing skills at an advanced level. I learned a considerable amount in that course that has shaped the writer I am today. As I have ventured through college my English courses have been my “easy” classes. I believe this is largely to do with the preparation I received throughout my high school career. Writing numerous papers in college has made me realize that as long as I have a clear and organized outline of the related topic, writing a college-level is not such a daunting task.
I am a speech language pathology major and I believe I am still learning what writing in my major looks like. I am only in my second writing-intensive course that is related to my major. From what I have seen, writing in my major is slightly different than in previous courses because writing in my major courses is more technical. The type of writing that is executed in the career of Speech Pathology leans more towards being precise and technical. For example, in one of my current courses I know that this semester we will learn how to write SOAP notes. SOAP notes are professional writings that Speech pathologists write up regarding their patients. Whereas the writing I have done in my previous classes has gone from using prompts issued by to professor to having creative freedom to write anything. In courses not related to my major there are a broader array of topics that are covered and that the students are able to write about.
Specifically from the course I am currently taking I do have a sense of what type of writing I will be doing in my career. Although my writing as a speech pathologist will be technical, I also see that there is creative room for style within the writing. I have learned that there are different types of genres that a speech pathologist can follow within their writing. There are progress reports such as SOAP notes and IEPs, diagnostic reports, medical letters, therapy plans, research articles, consent forms, medical history, and more.

When I first came to ODU, if I was given a writing prompt to do, I would simply start typing without making a plan or thinking about how I wanted to structure my essay first. I found that by doing things this way, I would struggle for ideas, this affected how I perceived writing at the college level. To me, it was a complex process and incredibly difficult for one to express their thoughts in a clear, articulate manner. However, after taking English Composition (ENGL 211C) in Fall 2015, my perceptions changed. I learnt that it would be easier if I planned my ideas beforehand. This would enable me to stick to a plan and have a clearer and more logical structure to my essay. ENGL 211C and CSD 449W has had a profound effect on how I view writing now. Writing is a process that takes time, it is more of a marathon than a sprint and one needs to pace themselves accordingly to write an excellent essay or paper at college level. It is important to reflect and review each successive draft, really thinking through the meaning and message to be conveyed, enabling the person to express their thoughts and ideas in an effective manner to the intended audience or reader.

I find that writing in courses specifically related to my major of Speech Pathology and Audiology requires more interpretation and evaluation of studies and research than general writing in other courses. When writing in courses related to my major, I find that I have to use more of the material and concepts learned in class and apply it more to my writing than I would for General Education classes and electives. Writing in courses related to my major requires greater use of key terms and bespoke jargon that I have learned in class as I am writing for a more specific audience entailing SLPs and teachers. In General Education classes, I would assume the audience that I am writing for is the general public. Because my audience is more specific in courses related to my major, I don’t feel the need to explain certain things in my writing as much as I would in a General Education class, where I would feel the need to elaborate and provide a general preamble on the topic before delivering the intended message in the essay as the general audience is unfamiliar with the topic or ideas being expressed. Moreover, through taking classes related to my major, I have learned that I need to be more concise in my writing. For example, I took CSD 449W in Spring 2017 where I watched a series of videos of patients of different ages and backgrounds receiving treatment. I was then required to do observation write-ups which included describing what I saw, what the clinician was doing, what the patient was doing and the type of treatment the patient was receiving.

Through the observation write-ups in CSD 449W, I learned that I have to include relevant information and not be excessively wordy, as I may be required to do several observation write-ups a day as an SLP and yet need to provide concise information for the intended recipients to be able to act on my observations. Based on the writing experiences I’ve had in classes related to my major, I feel that writing in my career will entail doing write-ups on patients, the type of treatment they are receiving, the progress they are making, and writing referrals for patients at times as well.

In the coarse of my whole academic career, I have had a lot of change in terms in writing and writing professionally. I grew up in a different country that has English as a second language. With that said, I have had a different upbringing than most college students. I went to a high school that did not really touch on the subject such as professional writing. My high school didn’t even get in touch with Calculus. Needless to say, I was behind when it came to academics coming in to college.
After attending some classes in ODU and self-practice, I was able to catch up in terms of professional writing. I learned different citations such as APA, MLA and the Chicago style. Being able to know the proper format and properly organize thoughts are essential to writing professionally. With this knowledge, reading other kind of academic journal became more familiar and easier to read.
Having English as a second language was very important in writing in college. I grew up in a country that thought us how to write in English and be able to know the rules of the language itself. We studied English grammar at a very young age. We gradually boost out vocabulary and understanding of the language where we can speak English. At the end of the day we learn to read English written mediums with ease and begin to write professionally as we prepare after college.
Being able to know English grammar is essential when writing professionally. It shows competency and knowledge. It also gives a sense of standard cause the messages are conveyed more clearly. I have been writing every semester since I started my college career and it has a different style every time. In history, I used a Chicago style citation and it was very different than APA. I believe it was because of the content of the writing that determined the style. There were footnotes in the Chicago style that I don’t think would make sense when used on content that deals with Speech Pathology or Audiology.
I think I don’t have a good idea on what we will write in terms of Speech Pathology or Audiology. I know we will be having a different kind of vocabulary in comparison to other majors. There will be jargons that only speech pathologist will say and in reverse, there will be jargons that music majors will understand and be unfamiliar to speech pathologist. I also think that we will be using the APA format more in comparison to other majors since we will be dealing with a lot of medical terms. Going into my career in Speech Pathology, I will be doing research and a variety of networking to coworkers and patients. Being able to properly conduct and document information in research is key to making a comprehensive study. In the work place, I should be able to provide proper information to my patients and give them a clear and concise explanation to what is to be the path taken appropriate to their specific situation. Lastly, I should be able to connect with coworkers. Being able to maintain a professional relationship through emailing would be ideal to showing respect towards other professionals in the field.

Written communication is a crucial aspect of interaction that demonstrates the ability to understand and synthesize subject matter. As a high school student, I thought college writing was synonymous with verbose sentences and complicated vocabulary. Although there is some truth to this, my perception of college level writing has changed drastically since starting school at Old Dominion University. I remember being in my college English class and my teacher handed me back a paper with a myriad of red marks. I was naturally confused and shocked because I was given an above average grade on the assignment. As I analyzed each mark, I realized that they all served a similar function. There were too many unnecessary words, too many comma splices, too many run on sentences, and it became clear I needed to simplify my writing. When I went to the teacher to discuss these marks, he explained that my writing was excellent, but I was not getting to the point as effectively as I should. This experience completely changed my perspective on college writing. I realized that I needed to focus on getting my point across effectively. Learning how to simplify my writing has been a crucial asset of my college experience that has allowed for my ideas to be better understood.

As a speech pathology major, it became apparent that communication skills are crucial in order to be successful in this profession. This also includes the ability to articulate my thoughts using written communication. As an aspiring speech pathologist, I will have to describe the speech errors of my clients and record them with detailed accuracy. Therefore, it is crucial that other professionals in my field are able to synthesize the written information I provide as efficiently as possible. Writing in my major can be both scientific and personal. For example, I utilize scientific writing in my audiology courses; whereas, other courses require more personal writing. This is because speech language pathologists are expected to be able to communicate in a variety of different ways. On one hand, I am required to use scientific writing to demonstrate my understanding of the subject field in a professional manner. On the other hand, I also need to be able to communicate with children and their parents in a way that facilitates their understanding of my goals and values as a speech language pathologist. Overall, writing in my major is unique because it requires an understanding of the five language registers in order to be successful.

The ability to write often seems to be overlooked in our society because it is something that most people have been able to do for as long as they can remember. After taking courses on childhood communication disorders at Old Dominion University, I realized that there is a myriad of disabilities that have an adverse impact on early childhood literacy. Children who are born with these disabilities are often regarded as being less intelligent or competent simply because of their unavoidable deficits in written communication. As an aspiring speech language pathologist, my goal is to obtain the knowledge and skills necessary to help children with disabilities to improve their written and spoken communication.

I will be honest when I hear that I have to write papers I get nervous and completely blank. I will admit that the writing that I have done throughout my college classes has made me more comfortable but I still get nervous about writing papers. So far in college though I have only taken 3 general education writing courses and 1 major writing course. This being said While I feel like I have come a long way from writing in high school because of these courses I feel that I have not had enough courses in writing directed at the major of Speech Pathology to gauge my understanding of clinical and meta-linguistic writing. My hopes are that through the rest of my undergraduate and graduate classes I will get a better understanding of how to write in my future profession. As for right now I feel like I have only scratched the surface of the subject and need to learn more.
I would describe the writing used in my general education courses to be more relaxed and less centered around scientific evidence and more towards the writing process in itself. The one major writing class I had was more centered around observing therapy videos and writing about them and they were guided so that we could go over appropriate language for the profession. This gave me a little sense of what will be expected from me in my future profession but again it was just a sample of what was to be expected and I still feel as though I could learn a lot more.

I am currently a senior at Old Dominion University’s undergraduate program in Speech and Language Pathology. A course that changed my outlook on writing professionally in my major was the course CSD 449W. In this course, I obtained strategies for peer reviewing my own written work in addition to others. With the guidance of Dr. Michalek, I learned the different components of SOAP-note observations and how to be direct with details, while not letting the SOAP-note observations become too lengthy. During the course of this class, I realized that my area of weakness was the mechanics of writing. My grammatical errors, for example, identifying tensing issues was a problem I struggled with and still struggle with from time to time. The course of 449W has helped me utilize two noteworthy methods of writing, which are drafting and reviewing my own writing as a professional Speech and Language Pathologist. I have not taken the GRE yet; however, CSD 449W reviewed the Kaplan method and how to develop a problems paper within a specific amount of time.
When I transferred to Old Dominion University I had never used APA formatting and preferred MLA whenever I was given the choice. Minoring in Special Education and taking multiple courses with Mr. Butler, I have become more proficient with APA formatting. I used to become frustrated when points were taken off from my assignments due to APA formatting issues such as the title; however, when I finally understood APA formatting and receiving the score I desired, it was a fulfilling accomplishment. At first, I would use APA generators for websites or textbooks, but now I understand why these generators are inaccurate and can cause errors in APA reference formatting. The Purdue Online Writing Lab has become my favorite resource guide when creating APA references for posters, PowerPoints, and research papers for both my minor and my major.
Other than SOAP-note observations, I do not have any knowledge of the types of writing I will be creating as future Speech and Language Pathologist. Many of my professors in my minor and major have published works in their field of study and I hope to as well and I understand the importance of being professional by just stating the facts in addition to APA formatting. Hopefully, I will further my knowledge of the field and the expected writing skills needed to become a successful Speech and Language Pathologist.

Upon reflection, I’ve found that college writing isn’t nearly as thought-provoking as I had previously anticipated. In my opinion, college writing often consists of a lot of “busy work.” During my high school years, I was constantly told how difficult college papers would be to write. The standards of college-level writing, many teachers said, were higher. However, my perception of this has certainly changed. Being well into my senior year of college, I haven’t received many in-depth or unique writing prompts that require much individual thought or reasoning skills. I’ve mostly been assigned to write summaries, abstracts, and the occasional 3-5 page research paper. While I will not complain about college writing being easier than I anticipated, I will say that I wish students were offered more diverse types of prompts. I understand the benefits of assigning abstracts and research papers, as they do teach students a plethora of writing skills, such as being able to synthesize information, put things into one’s own words, and support claims with facts. Obviously, they have an important place in the college classroom. But I believe that over time, as students advance onto new courses and acquire a quality background in these areas, the forms of writing should also become more advanced. In general, I feel that only being required to write in a certain way is limiting. As an undergrad student majoring in Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology, I feel that I would benefit from writing more SOAP Notes, progress reports, and objectives, as these are the forms of writing I will actually use in my career day to day. Often, in my Communication Sciences and Disorders (CSD) courses, we are assigned to write one of the previous examples listed once and then never revisit it again. This makes internalizing these forms of writing difficult, as they are completely new, as well as prevents students from practicing their craft. It makes me feel unprepared for a lot of the writing I’ll be doing in clinic at the graduate level. Overall, I have the sense that I’ll be doing more technical writing in my career, as opposed to the creative and persuasive writing that occurs in English classes. Figurative language is not really incorporated into the types of reports that I’ll be writing in my field of study. Writing as a Speech-Language Pathologist will consist more of documenting observations over time and clearly stating a client’s progress in a professional manner. In addition, it will involve creating and writing down treatment plans, as well as measurable goals. Finally, remembering and utilizing Evidence-Based Practice (EBP) is essential in this career. In the end, my experience of college writing has proven to be less difficult than I originally thought. Because I received a strong foundation in many areas of writing in high school, it seemed that I was over prepared for college. Nonetheless, I have gained exposure to several new forms of writing and look forward to learning more about the technical aspect of writing as a Speech-Language Pathologist.

I am currently in my second semester of graduate school at ODU for Speech Language Pathology. I studied Psychology and Communication Sciences and Disorders; so most of my college level writing was for research papers in my psychology classes. However, as an undergrad I did take a class in CSD that showed us examples and had us write professional samples. I saved this and I referred to them for professional writing assignments I’ve had for graduate school. However, I have very little experience in what is expected of me when it comes to professional writing. Writing for my major differs in the sense that it must sound professional and we must always consider who is reading these documents, usually insurance companies, patients and parents. This is different than writing a research paper, where college-level vocabulary is encouraged, if we include vocabulary that an average person may not know we are encouraged to explain what it means in the document. I have a sense of the type of writing I’ll be doing in my career and I hope with more graduate classes and working in the on-campus clinic will prepare me for that.

Writing is an indispensable skill for our professional and personal lives. I believe writing is a skill as it is not something we are born knowing how to do. Much like walking or talking, it is a skill that must be honed over time. Throughout our education, we study proper writing techniques that help us learn how to communicate effectively using written information. As we progress through our education we begin to focus in this skill on how to effectively write for academia and in our profession. This includes things like being able to draw written conclusions, convey data about a client’s success in a therapy session, analysis skills, communicate with colleagues in a precise manner, write clear and unambiguous diagnostic reports, and documentation skills.
When I first began college over ten years ago I viewed my writing classes or writing assignments as just another step in the ladder towards my eventual goal. I had always been in AP English and been able to write papers with relative ease. I’ve never felt that I gained much from 100 and 200 level English classes and the few writing assignments I had to do in other classes seemed to have low expectations. I didn’t feel the classes were a stepping stone towards learning how to write in my discipline. Now that I have been in my major my perception of writing at the college level has changed. Writing for the profession is more practical since you will be required to use this type of writing (documentation, SOAP notes, Individualized Education Plans, language analysis, succinct reporting, journal articles, etc.) on a daily basis. I can see how there needs to be a foundation of good writing skills, that if you had not learned in high school, 100 and 200 level English course would fill that gap so that when you do arrive at your major courses you can understand the more nuanced things. These things that are taught in my major courses for writing varied widely than what was taught in my previous more general writing courses.
In my career I believe I will do a variety of different types of writing that includes assessments, reports, emails, grant proposals, recommendations, and more. On one hand we have to write to an audience that includes professionals and insurance companies and on the other we write and interact with patients and families. For all of these audiences we have to have accurate documentation and be able to provide concise and comprehensive reports. But we have to be able to convey that information in different ways for the different audience we are writing for. If I end up doing research in my career I will be writing proposals and research articles. Technical, accurate and unbiased writing is vital for these endeavors and this is another type of writing that is taught in my major courses that differs from the general writing that I have done in other classes.

Throughout my years of writing papers, its been one of the things that I struggle with the most. I have always found myself to be a decent writer getting better as I write more papers, but its still not one of my strongest skills. My perception of writing at the college level has changed drastically over time. I feel the more I write the harder its becoming to express what I want the reader to understand, because when writing trying to explain myself is the hardest part. With all the classes I am taking now that I am majoring in Speech Pathology and minoring in Special Education, a lot of the writing has to do with many people reading what you write and trying to collect information and data for whatever reason they may need it for. The writing in my major courses is different than any other writing I have done in any other college course. Many of the writing for my major courses include papers that is client based, so very informative, they are not very lengthy at all, because with papers like this it is better just to get to the point of what is wrong with the patient and what you can do to help that patient. I am in the writing course 449W this semester so hopefully I will be getting a better understanding of the type of writing I’ll be doing in my career. Hopefully with all this practice it will help me become more confident in my writing in classes and for any writing I will be doing in the future.

I am a non-traditional student and writing is a task I usually approach with a fair amount of trepidation. Back in high school, which was essentially a lifetime ago, I had confidence in my writing and enjoyed writing creatively. However, as the years progressed and I became more and more out of practice, writing became a chore. The writing format I grew up with was replaced with APA and MLA styles causing me to have to relearn everything I thought I knew. I can honestly say; writing is not something I consider to be a great strength of mine.

Prior to coming back to school at Old Dominion University, my writing exposure was mostly in a creative writing form. I had stories to tell, descriptive writing, persuasive writing, etc. Nothing that was technical in nature and therefore I could just pull out my computer and start writing. My ideas were complete, however, I still failed to understand the rules that applied to the written language and I continued to struggle with MLA formatting. I would regularly have points taken away for poor formatting and basic lack of understanding what was asked. These experiences degraded my confidence in my writing.

I am currently a senior at Old Dominion University, majoring in Speech and Language Pathology and minoring in Special Education. I am seriously considering a career in Special Education I recognize that writing concisely is a skill I’m going to need to hone and develop.
My final semesters at Old Dominion University, are much more writing intensive than many of my previous semesters. During the fall semester of 2017, I took English 350, which looks at writing from the mechanical aspect. In that class, we looked at the format of language in terms of grammar and rules. My experience in that class helped me out tremendously in terms of skills and technique. It gave me a better understanding of the rules that govern the English language and how our sentences, paragraphs are structured. This final semester I’m taking CSD 449W which I believe will have an even greater impact on my writing ability because I will finally see a lot more exposure to SOAP notes and diagnostic reports in addition to the academic articles that we’ve previously had exposure to.

I realize that working as a teacher in Special Education I will need to be able to document the progress of my students. I will need to set measurable goals, and be able to effectively communicate the student’s needs and skills through IEPs, 504 and Individual Transition Plans for students of varying support needs and abilities. I expect that with continued exposure and practice I will gain the confidence and skills to approach writing for my major with confidence. I can truthfully admit that I am encouraged to see that my own writing has significantly improved over the last 5 semesters. I have no reason to doubt that my writing ability will continue to improve.

I have learned over my years at Old Dominion that writing in college and writing in the profession as a speech language pathologist or audiologist are not the same thing. My perception of writing at the college level did not change much over my first three years in college until I got to the CSD 449W course just last semester. This course was the first course that taught me specifically about writing as a speech language pathologist. Writing has always come extremely easy to me in school, until I got to this course. I learned from taking this class that I have a very “fluffy” style of writing that is not necessary in the professional world. This class taught me how to minimize the unnecessary details and how to realize what is important enough to be actually mentioned in the writing. After learning this skill form this class, I have begun to use these strategies in my other courses to help myself get to the meat of the writing quicker. I have found that using this method in my other classes, and even when doing simple things such as texting and emailing, can greatly reduce my tendency to ramble on about material that does not necessarily matter. This class taught me that majority of the time, it is much more useful to say just what is actually important so that others understand the vital material, as opposed to fluffing it up unnecessarily to simply make it sound better. I even used these strategies on my first GRE test where they worked wonderfully and resulted in a great writing score.
In my future career as an SLP, I believe I will be doing more brief and direct styles of writing than anything. These writings will include only the important details regarding patients so that other professionals can understand exactly what is going on with that particular patient. This skill of sticking to only the important information is still a skill that I am working on, but I feel I have improved on this greatly since taking CSD 449W last Fall.
Writing in my other classes differs from writing I have to do in my major courses in that there is not much room for opinions and storytelling within the written work in my major. Writing within my CSD classes consists of mostly things such as article reviews where we are to focus on the hard core facts, not our opinions. I enjoy taking extra writing classes when possible where I am given a little more freedom to have fun with my writing. I enjoy the storytelling aspect of writing but I have learned when that is acceptable and when that is not over the past semester.

During my first semester in college, I took an english composition class. The papers I wrote in that class, were very similar to papers I had to write in high-school. MLA format was how all my papers were written. My citations most likely were not perfect, but were still accepted; effort was what was most important to show that there was no intended plagiarism. The first english course I took in college definitely felt like something I already knew how to do. I did, however, learn a couple things that came in handy for all future papers I wrote in college; that being, how to have hanging indentations in my citations and how to check my citations were correctly formatted.
My perception writing at the college level has definitely changed over time. As my courses became higher in level, the content in my writing had to be elevated as well. I realized that I always needed a source to validate what I had to say, and that it is not always easy finding reliable sources or sources that were about the topic I intended to write about.
Writing in my major courses definitely differs from writing I have done in my other courses. In my english, literature, information technology, and special education classes, all my papers were to be formatted in MLA format. In my public speaking course, the citations could also be in MLA format. In my history class, I was to use Chicago style, which I had never done before and had trouble with. I cannot remember, but I think my sociology class was in either MLA or APA format.
Once I started writing papers for my major courses, I had to write in APA format. I did not understand how to do that at first, and was even scared I would never get the hang of it. Now, I have learned that APA format, the heading within a paper differ from paper to paper and that there is no same format to follow each time. Writing in my major courses also differed from any other writing I have done because all my sources had to be from a database, scholarly article, or an extremely reliable source.
I have a sense of what type of writing I will be doing in my career, due to my CSD 449W class. In that course, the students were to take notes on observations of speech therapy sessions. With the notes taken, we were to write up the therapy observation, just like how a speech-language pathologist would after their session with their client. I have also seen how an IEP would look like, if I were to work in a school setting within special education.
Another thing I would add is that taking ENGL 350 definitely helped. I enjoyed that class a lot and it really showed me more to grammar than I had ever known before, and I am a “grammar nazi.” Taking that class definitely has helped me be aware of my grammar in all my writings.

In the field of speech-language pathology, good writing skills are extremely important. One of the main differences about writing in this major versus other majors (such as English) is that our writing skills must be very technical rather than creative.
In our future professions as SLPs, we will be required to write comprehensive diagnostic summaries on out future clients. These need to be succinct, well-organized, specific, and above-all, correct. They should be written in such a way that the client and/or client’s family members will be able to read and understand the information, and any other clinical professional should be able to read it and know exactly what is going on with that particular client.
As a first year graduate student, I have had the opportunity to practice writing a diagnostic summary several times based on clients that are in Simucase. I was able to experience firsthand exactly how much information goes into these summaries and how challenging and time-consuming they can be to write. As I continue to practice in graduate school, I think eventually I will get really good at writing them and the information I need to include will be like second nature to me (at least, that’s what I’m hoping will happen).
Another technical form of writing that speech-language pathologists will encounter are research and journal articles. Research is vital to the field of speech-language pathology and evidence-based practice. SLPs that participate in research need to have the skill of organizing their data and findings in the template of a scientific journal.
Regardless of whether we are writing diagnostic summaries or research articles, we will need to include a lot of data in whatever we are writing. This data may be qualitative and/or quantitative, and could be presented in paragraph form or along with a table or chart. An SLP should be able to incorporate this data fluently into his/her report writing.
A sound knowledge of citing in APA is also necessary in the field of speech-language pathology. We are always referencing research articles and textbooks in our diagnostic report writing, therapy plans, research papers, and projects, and in the case of graduate school, take-home final exams. Writing in this major will require us to know how to correctly use in-text citations as well as how to create and include an organized references page at the end of our work.
Another type of writing that was new to me last semester was a clinical learning log I had to create for my articulation and phonology class. This included many small writing assignments where I was required to reference outside sources in APA. I also had to include a table of contents, which was a first for me.
Speech-language pathology is a writing-intensive profession. Our writing is a reflection of communication skills, and as SLPs we are expected to have top-notch communication skills. This means that having excellent writing skills is imperative in this field. Writing assignments in this major will help to prepare students for graduate school and for their future careers as SLPs.

Effective writing is one of the most critical skills for college students. The skills one learns in high school should sufficiently prepare students to write the types of papers that college will require of them. Despite this, many students will find papers that they write in college provide different challenges and opportunities than those they wrote in high school.

My perception of collegiate writing has not changed all that much but what has changed is my understanding of the differences in papers written across disciplines. Each paper will require good research, citations, proper format, and so on. A paper’s essential structure and pieces do not themselves vary much across disciplines. However, the tone and goals of research papers in particular can be quite different for me. I have a degree in biology and have written and read many papers in this field. In general, I find research articles in biology, chemistry, or other STEM fields to be much more conservative in their findings. Conclusions drawn from data or research must not be made to bold or to presumptive. In my personal experience, it seemed like one of the more difficult things in writing scientific articles was hindering the tendency to extrapolate on the data and to instead make the most grounded and reasonable conclusions from the research. Presumptions are problematic in STEM fields. They may lead to confirmation bias when the author is expecting an outcome. It may also cause the writer to miss other conclusions that the data could have lead them to.

I have a good idea of the writing I may be required to do in my career. As I mentioned, I have a degree in environmental biology but I am currently working towards my Bachelor’s in environmental engineering. I have done relatively few papers in my second degree. This is partially due to my curriculum as I am not required to take several writing centric courses as they have been covered in my previous curriculum. The dearth of papers is also partly due to the different fields. The field of biology requires a great amount of combing through research articles and looking for relevant data. While I will be required to write some proposals and analyses, it seems at this point in my education that engineering will not require the same type of research. It also seems to me that the writing I will be expected to do in engineering will be based more upon my own analysis of structures and systems rather than research collected from dozens of research articles.

As a part of writing this blog, I will be following up to this article in a few months time. I expect that I may have some changed perspectives after this semester. This is because my previous semesters had all been heavy on prerequisite classes like math and physics, but I am now taking all civil/environmental engineering courses. I expect these classes to require more writing than the other courses I have taken thus far.

When I first started college I was a bit intimidated to write papers for any of my classes. Although I had written numerous narrative, descriptive, persuasive, and research papers in my honors English and social studies classes in high school, I did not believe my writing skills were as sophisticated or elaborated as they should for college level writing. During my first two semesters as a college student I took introduction to college writing I and II. My professors did not really specify or gave me guidance on how to properly write papers, it was expected that I knew how to write college papers. After writing numerous papers and getting constructive criticism from my professors I was able become a better writer. I learned the basics of writing papers in MLA format and realized that to write a good paper, requires critical thinking and I must do research and make sure my writing is pleasant and consistent for the reader and audience to understand.
I am a civil engineering student at Old Dominion University and I wrote my first major related research paper last fall semester. My engineering materials professor wanted each student to write a term research paper about a construction material that could be used in the future. I decided to write about bendable concrete. I did research on my material and made sure my paper described every aspect of my topic thoroughly. I also took a materials laboratory last fall semester, each lab required a lab report with a brief explanation of each conducted lab and a written discussion and conclusion. Writing such reports not only benefited my writing skills, but it also gave me a better understanding of each lab. The first time I did a lab report was for my college chemistry II class a few semesters ago. Although I did learn, I found myself dragging each word trying to finish it.
When it comes to writing, it varies in every field – writing my research paper was a unique experience, I enjoyed researching and did not think it was boring like I would if I was writing for one of my other courses. I remember how writing for other subjects was very difficult and daunting just because I was usually forced to write about something I had no interest in. Writing for my major grants me the opportunity to prosper my writing skills in my major field.
Overall, my perception of writing at college level has changed over the years – is more fun and enjoyable, but at the same time more serious and professional, because what one writes is a perception of themselves.
I’m not exactly sure what specifically type of writing I will be doing in my career, but I believe it will be a series of formal and informal documents, such as project reports, letters, emails, specifications, project scopes, and proposals. I am very excited and eager to gain more experience in writing as an engineer once I graduate next spring semester.

My perception of college writing has changed in many ways compared to prior or high school. In highschool I did not see the purpose and felt that writing was being used as a mean of communication or showing one’s understanding but as busy work. Now as a sophomore in Civil Engineering I see the true purpose of writing which is to express one’s thoughts in the most logical manner depending on the subject. My writing itself has grown compared to before. I am able to express myself more clearly and in a more concise manner. As I continue my education and into my core civil engineering classes my writing will grow more complex and my ability will grow as well. Currently I am transitioning from writing for an essay for example to writing in scientific terms and using the format required for the university. This of course has it challenges and maybe my perception on writing will change again. The type of writing I expect to do in my career will be for communication between clients and for others to understand, so it is essential I know how to write in a manner that other engineers will understand but also for people who are not in the engineering field. I noticed that writing in the sciences differs significantly from writing in the humanities. I believe writing in the humanities requires one to continuously state their opinion or various answers with no definite answer. In the engineering field an answer will need to be backed by a solution or explanation of how you concluded on such an answer that in many cases will be a specific answer. Also, as I have continued in my college education especially in engineering there is significant restatement of the problem so the goal is not lost in long writing or explanation of a thought process.
Altogether I believe writing in college has much more of a purpose and is not senses such as high school. I am fine with this notion but struggle to understand why how writing in high school prepares you for writing in college when it is not done with the same purpose. In college I have noticed that professors have a more emphasis on the quality of the writing such as grammar, punctuation and content rather than the length. In high school many teachers care more about the length of the writing rather than the quality. It is believed by many of the professors I have had thus far that if you can get your point across with less words than that is good rather than have more words for no reason and thus creating a piece that drags along when reading. In many cases such as this prompt there is a specific word count that must be met, which then requires students to go beyond what is needed to make their communication clear. As I have asked some of my engineering professors about being in practice and the type of writing that is required when communicating non verbally most tell me that getting the message across the most clear way with the best quality in the least amount of time is key. In everyday practice time is limited to get work done.

College has enhanced my writing skills in order to give the reader a clear and in-depth understanding on each topic I present. What I have learned throughout the years of writing papers and blogs in college is that writing consists of fundamentals or “foundations” that one should follow to really impact the reader and help the reader understand the information. The fundamental every writer should have should be a clear thesis. Having a clear thesis always helps the reader by using a thesis as a guide to the topic the writer presents. Without a clear thesis, the writing may be confusing, which often can lead to an uninterest in reading the topic thoroughly. Starting with a clear thesis and ending my written assignment by restating my thesis has improved the quality of my papers significantly, that inevitably helped me received better grades in my written assignments in the past and present. In my opinion, as a civil engineer, writing does not completely vary from other majors. As a civil engineer, I believe the writing will be more condensed, but still following the same tactics I have used in the past to help the reader understand what I am trying to inform them with. When I speak of the word “condensed,” I say this because as a civil engineer, most of our writing will be conducted around research and persuasion. Papers will have to be detailed, strictly research, and if I am trying to present a project to the city, state or federal level, my paper must be able to persuade to my reader my ideas and or beliefs utilizing my writing skills. As I stated above, I would format my paper the same way I would format my paper for a general education class; having a clear thesis statement and ending with my thesis to establish a clear topic and keep the reader interested on the paper. As I have stated before, as a civil engineer, I believe most of the papers I will be conducting are research based. Whether I am doing a paper for my Master’s Degree in Civil Engineering or working with a firm and presenting a project to the board, research is the core of many of the papers I will be writing in the future. A lot of the papers I will be writing will also be persuasive papers, because for the most part, my goal as a civil engineer is to present to the people my research and ideas, and finally convince them that the topic I presented will work. By the Spring of 2019, my goal is to become a Civil Engineer, with a minor in Environmental Engineering. I chose this route because I know engineers can make a big impact in the world, as we are the ones who create innovative designs to better the future. With the rapid impact of climate change in our world today, I know I will have a huge task on my hands. Utilizing the writing skills I have learned throughout college and my knowledge I have obtained in my engineering career, I have hopes of creating new ideas to better the future and inevitably have an impact on our planet.

Finishing up my undergrad at Old Dominion University has been a long journey. Ever since I could remember I never was a fan of writing. I took multiple writing classes in high school and only expected it to get worse. I was honestly surprised by the writing courses I have taken here since it hasn’t changed to much since my senior year of high school. I’ve taken general education English writing classes and I am now learning how to write up reports for engineering experiments and future site plans, etc. Over time I have noticed that writing has become a very important part of communication through all fields of work. You must be able to describe information to someone who has never seen it before and make sure they can retain the material. You must be very specific and have a good use of examples, pictures, graphs, etc. Writing in my major courses has become easier for me after going through all the general education English courses. All the writing I have done my entire life was either autobiographies or fictional stories. Now that I have had the opportunity to construct an engineering paper, I have almost enjoyed writing again. There is something about presenting a product that can’t be beat, and that is the fact that you personally know it will work. Running multiple tests to prove your theory backs up your paper even more and if you can write up a good enough report then you will have a great future as an engineer. They are different in many ways because when writing for an English class you must follow all parameters when citing any information, you used to obtain your answer. In engineering courses, I’ve noticed that most professors like to see a lot of illustrations and a few paragraphs of brief descriptions of whatever you plan to present. I do have a good idea of the type of writing I will be configuring in my career due to an internship I had a few years ago. Working with tenured civil engineers during my internship, I was a little overwhelmed at first. After a month of continuous subdivisions being built and endless grading I could teach myself and became very comfortable with the software by the end of the internship. I also had the opportunity at this internship to survey. After surveying the field and then you go back to the office and look at all the shots you took, it’s easier to understand what is going on because you were physically out in the field working on the terrain. Two of the classes I am currently enrolled in have two lab sections and every week we are working on a new report to type up which has helped my writing in my field of work. I also am taking the senior design project next semester so once I complete that project, many projects I must do in my career will be very similar to that one.

Since starting engineering school, I have done very little creative writing. Before college, I used to like to write, and I still enjoy the occasional assignment with potential for creative writing, if for no other reason than for the break from monotony and constant math problems. Over the last four years, I have maybe written a total of five or six papers for non-writing related classes. As far as I can tell, there should be more of an emphasis on the technical side of writing for STEM degrees, with an option for additional electives. As a transfer student, technical report writing was optional, and I believe that it should have been mandatory, since this is the type of writing I expect to be accountable for in the engineering field. Also, out of those five or six papers I’ve written in engineering school, all of them would have benefited from taking a class designed specifically for report writing. Maybe make it an online class and have it be mandatory for transfer students!