Bartlett’s article focuses primarily on the issue that “college has not been doing a good job of teaching students how to write”. The question that surrounds this supposed problem is whether it is the job of colleges to teach writing (as implied by Bartlett), or if it instead simply needs to be facilitated.
Throughout the article prestigious schools express concern that their students “lack the skills to write lengthy, sophisticated research papers”. These universities seem to suggest that excellent writing can be taught simply be choosing the correct curriculum. But are writing skills actually missing from the abilities of these undergrads under the current system or are students simply lacking the interest and effort necessary to produce a meaningful literacy due to the assigned writing projects?