Preparing Adult English Learners to Write for College and the Workplace

This volume has been written as a response to the new types of communicative demands that the twenty-first century has brought to the workplace. Today’s adult education programs must prepare students to understand complex operations, be problem-solvers, be computer literate, and be fluent in professional English when speaking and writing. As a result, writing has become a bigger need in the field of adult education, and writing instruction must follow suit and extend beyond transactional writing (taking notes, correcting grammar, writing narratives) to rhetorically flexible writing for multiple audiences, purposes, and contexts, whether for a college course or in the workplace. Some of the specific types of writing students need now are the ability to: write argumentative, technical, and informative texts; create, argue for, and support a thesis statement; summarize; write concisely with appropriate vocabulary; produce a well-edited piece understandable to native speakers; and use and credit sources.

The volume is organized into four parts: Setting the Stage for Teaching Writing, Supporting the Writing Process, Working with Beginning Writers, and Aligning Writing with Accountability Systems. Chapters are written by current (or former) adult educators with experience across levels. Each chapter introduces an approach based on research that can guide writing instruction and provides specific guidance and tools for implementation. Questions open and close the chapters to guide reading and frame future exploration. JoAnn (Jodi) Crandall has written the Epilogue.

Readers will discover ways to move adults into higher education and careers by helping them be college and career ready, to integrate writing into the existing curriculum in adult education programs at all levels, including content classes, and to teach writing according to national and state standards.