The myth that most students can't write begins with the very first college writing exams, then really emerges when headline news begin reporting standardized test results. Consequences include that test results define writing and writing failure, and we accept test-based claims and criteria. We make limited standards the same thing as excellent standards, and we think about writing in terms of control rather than practice. Closer to the truth is that early exam reports sometimes lied, errors are changing but not increasing, and tests and scoring criteria change. Standardized exam writing is limited, but most students write across a broad writing continuum when they are not writing standardized exams.

The final myth, new technology threatens writing, brings us full circle back to myth 1, because it keeps limiting correct writing. It puts correct writing at odds with informal digital writing, even when correct writing is critiqued for being stodgy. We get the idea that correct writing is controlled, whereas informal digital writing is careless, and we limit who reads correct writing and what writing is studied in school. Closer to the truth is that if you are alarmed by something – say, text message slang – you will notice it more, even if most written English is neither changing nor fundamentally different. Informal writing is not the same thing as careless writing, and it is both similar and different from formal writing on the writing continuum.