Reason Write Program

[College professors] expect students to recognize that writing is a form of thinking and that sustaining arguments and synthesizing ideas will be the mainstay of their college writing experiences.

[Harvard's] philosophy is that writing and thinking are inseparably related and that good thinking requires good writing. You will spend most of your time in class on strategies of argument--discovering and arranging persuasive ideas and evidence through a process of drafting and revising.

Reason Write sets a single goal for students: write a 1,000 word sustained argument, free of mechanical error, by high school graduation. The program is based on a simple premise – good writing is good thinking. By focusing high school instruction on argumentative writing, students develop the critical reading, writing and thinking skills that are required in college and university courses. This four-year, writing-across-the-curriculum program provides high school students with coherent, consistent literacy instruction across all grade levels and across all academic disciplines. The result – students graduate from high school prepared to compete in higher education.

High schools help students gain admission to college, but do not prepare students for college work. Two-thirds of college freshmen are unprepared for the most frequently assigned writing tasks: analyzing arguments or information and synthesizing information from several sources. In fact, there is minimal overlap between the types of writing tasks assigned in high school and college. For this reason, writing instructors in the University of California system most frequently teach argumentative writing in introductory composition courses (Intersegmental Committee of the Academic Senates of the California Community Colleges, the California State University, and the University of California, 2002).

Writing ability is a powerful predictor of college success. College professors evaluate student learning, ability and potential through student writing, asking students to complete approximately 30 writing assignments per year. While test scores, GPA, and high school coursework are strongly correlated with undergraduate academic performance, writing proficiency is one of the best predictors of college success (along with knowledge of advanced mathematics).