Alvarado 1

Mario Alvarado

Professor McCann

English 1302.203

28 January 2022

Passages into College Writing: Listening to the Experiences of International Students Activity

Many things are often generalized, an example being any individual form of martial arts

referred by people as Karate, instead of the name of their actual disciplines, such as Judo, or

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. International students and United States students often face the unfortunate

same generalizations. In Passages into College Writing: Listening to the Experiences of

International Students, Jason Schneider does an effective job of using the academic, peer-

reviewed writing format to get his thesis of international students’ experiences and challenges

being overlooked, across to reach his desired audience.

Passages into College Writing: Listening to the Experiences of International Students is a

peer-reviewed article written by Jason Schneider and published by The Association of Teachers

of Advanced Composition in one of their journals, Composition Forum. The reason that I believe

the article to be peer-reviewed is because I pasted the title into EbscoHost and limited the results

to peer-reviewed sources and it was the first result. Schneider’s article being published by The

Association of Teachers of Advanced Composition, a credible organization, could also be

evidence that the article is peer-reviewed. Furthermore, since this article follows an academic

writing format, complete with an Abstract and Works Cited page, the likelihood of the article

being peer-reviewed increases. In addition to the academic writing format acting as evidence of

the article being peer-reviewed, the academic writing format also enables the author’s thesis to

be clear.
 Alvarado 2

Schneider uses academic sources to express his thesis that details the experiences of

international students sharing similarities and differences with their U.S. counterparts. Schneider

gives the example of both international and U.S students sharing the same task: assigned

academic writing. However, Schneider discusses how this task may be easier for U.S. students

who at least know how to write in English, whereas international students don’t know the

language well, and much less can apply it in the academic writing format (2). Schneider talks

about how he hasn’t realized that he doesn’t provide a space of discourse for students and

therefore is less aware of the challenges that might be faced by them (1). Because of this,

Schneider deeply analyzes the experiences of international students and uses others’ research to

support his thesis, evident from his extensive in-text citations and “Works Cited” page. Because

of the clarity of Schneider’s thesis, he is able to indicate and reach his target audience.

There are two intended audiences for this article: both professors and students who may

overlook an international student’s situation. This is evident from Schneider including the “I

realized that I rarely take the time to listen to my students” part to provide something for

instructors to ask themselves the same question that Schneider asked himself when stumbling

across that revelation (1). Additionally, Schneider mentions how a source details that

international students have to take part in ‘” Triple learning”’, basically mentioning how in

addition to fulfilling their school duties like any student, international students must learn the

English language, understand the people where they reside who most likely speak pure English,

and be able to form part of the English-speaking academic community (3). I think it’s nice that

Schneider basically gave readers a taste of an international student’s life and how challenging it

can be. Rather than forming part of his intended audience, he decided to be the one to point the

issue out to them.

 Alvarado 3

In conclusion, in his article, Schneider detailed the challenges faced by international

students, which are commonly overlooked. Because of this, Schneider is able to portray that he is

one of the few who realized the issue and is making an effort to combat it. Schneider’s efforts are

displayed through his writing, and, unlike his topic of discussion, they aren’t overlooked.
 Alvarado 4

Works Cited

Schneider, Jason. “Passages into College Writing: Listening to the Experiences of International

Students.” Composition Forum, vol. 40, Jan. 2018. EBSCOhost,

https://tamiu.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true

&db=eric&AN=EJ1196520&scope=site. Accessed 30 January 2022.