The Great Conversation (of the Dining Hall): One Student's Experience of College Level Writing

the first thought that struck me as i read this is that this is exactly what one of the contributors to this book said should not be considered as college writing- it is a piece largely constructed from the student's observation and experiences - which i probably why i loved reading it.

That said, that's pretty much what the entire essay is about.  We get two essays and the experienes that came with them: one in high school and the other in college.  In both cases, the experience is similar: she struggles to produce something worth reading, passionately diving into the process so that she can having something validated by those whom she respects.  However, it seems to me that the process she's describing is more about the ideas she was formulating rather than the writing; once she learns that she can write the way her brother can play music, with cadence, style, tempo and all that jazz,she never returns to that particular subjects, leaving us with the impression that college level writing is all about communication of ideas and the struggle to formulate them.