College vs First Grade Paper Writing: Main Differences to Consider

A transition from first grade writing paper standards to college level requires can be a hard one to make for many students. Sudden changes in academic styles and formats can be quite frustrating and confusing to most of them, but it’s possible to make this transition easier.

It’s similar to transiting from a kindergarten to a school. How can you do that and submit a perfect essay? Things that school teachers call good writing can be insufficient in colleges because of high expectations, not because professors are hard to please.

Why Differences are Important to Note

Differences between college and first-grade writing paper requirements are important to note if you want to succeed. What are some of the main ones?

• The amount of your critical thinking and evaluative efforts necessary to do a good job;
• Your overall approach to academic writing and accompanied thinking processes;
• Paragraph formatting and structure;
• The formulation of your strong arguments and thesis statements.

If you fail to learn and understand these important differences in writing paper for first grade and college, your chance to become a successful student will be very low.

What are Major Changes to Anticipate?

You may feel confused because of different things, including ambiguous and obscure demands of college-level essay writing because it has different page and space requirements. A school teacher can be happy with students who hand their essay with proper grammar, transitions, spelling, and punctuation if they adhere to assignment guidelines. What do college professors expect? These basic components may not impress them a lot.

7 College Level Writing Expectations

They want students to do the following:

1. Generating new concepts, thoughts, and ideas with no assistance or independently;
2. Demonstrating excellent critical thinking skills and ability to think on their own;
3. Completing all assignments to spell out key concerns or issues;
4. Conducting in-depth research to correspond the assignment depth;
5. Using a higher level of thinking (evaluation, analysis, and synthesis);
6. Presenting clear evidence to defend claims or statements effectively;
7. Building strong arguments and echoing them throughout essays.

As you can see, these academic standards are quite different from writing paper first-grade basics, and they are separate categories. You can download a special printable picture with basic rules.

School teachers may demand some of these paper writing elements, but in their simpler form (it depends on their basic preferences and if specific classes are advanced or not). They may push students to think independently and brainstorm new concepts in their academic papers, but they are satisfied with their starting level.

What are Format and Structure Changes?

Significant differences are in paper formats and structures. School teachers introduce a range of interesting outlines, acronyms, useful tricks, and tips to help their students develop ideas and formulate a perfect paper, but college professors discourage most of these tricks because they mirror a formalized or structured approach to academic writing. They think that their use hinders students from evaluating and exploring topics. The most common paper writing structure changes have a big impact on:

• Paragraph contents;
• 5-paragraph paper;
• Thesis statements;
• Formatting;
• Presentations.

Do you Need to Draft a 5-Paragraph Paper?

College writing isn’t compatible with a standard 5-paragraph paper structure because it limits the analysis of students only to 3 basic ideas and body paragraphs.

Paragraph Contents

School students can include a limited number of points into every paragraph that they draft, but college paper requirements set fewer restrictions to encourage them to structure lengthy paragraphs and fully discuss a specific object. That’s why college paper writing requires more highlights and proofs.

Thesis Statements

Although a first-grade paper includes a thesis in some form, it’s general and short and it may resemble a topic sentence. In every college paper, this statement should be complex, well-developed, and go far beyond a simple introductory sentence or topic.

Formatting Changes

Do first-grade students need to follow any formatting standards? Teachers don’t require them to format their academic paper according to any popular styling guides (APA, MLA, Chicago, and others), but it’s an important standard of college writing. Professors may reject or mark down your college paper if you fail to meet all the necessary formatting requirements.

Presentation Differences

Your college paper should come in a formal style. That’s because you can’t impress any professors with different graphics, images, special binding, or bright colors on its title paper. They need a simple white paper with black letters.

Why do schools teach a 5-paragraph paper format?

It’s an effective way to teach students how to draft an academic paper correctly, and it’s a simplified version of academic writing, which requires them to state interesting ideas and support them with strong evidence. Setting this limit narrows available options and forces students to master important paper organization basics and become better writers fast.

What else? Students should follow this paper writing format during their AP exams, different tests, SAT exams, and this is what makes it a must. Writing a standard 5-paragraph paper is just like riding a bicycle with training wheels because it’s an effective tool that will help you learn faster. This doesn’t mean that you need to use it forever. If you can structure your perfect paper without it, do it.

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