I teach undergrads in communications/media, and I’m trying to understand a pattern I’m seeing among first-year students with basic writing skills.
An unusually high number of students (I’d estimate around 70% of the ~80 students I have this semester) don’t seem confident with very basic writing conventions (using full stops, capitalising the start of sentences, and capitalising proper nouns (including the name of the suburb or city they’re from)).
I want to understand the bigger picture so I can deal with it, but I’m finding that challenging.
Is what I’m describing ringing a bell with anyone? Do you have any insight into what's happening?
I’m hesitant to attribute this solely to social media or technology, as people typically know how to switch from informal to conventional writing when needed, and when I raise it with current students, they genuinely seem overwhelmed by what we're expecting of them (an ability to at least write a basic sentence).