International students coming to the U.S. not only have to adjust to a new cultural, social and educational environment, but also to a more Americanized writing style.
In an attempt to ease this transition, the Center for Programs in Contemporary Writing started the Global English course last semester.
"At this point, more non-native people [in the world] write and read in English" than native speakers, said Director of the Critical Writing Program, Valerie Ross.
Ranging from British English to Chinese-English to Spanglish, international students come from very diverse English-speaking backgrounds, she added.
Global English was created when CPCW restructured a writing seminar called Writing for International Students to emphasize the global nature of English, Ross said.
The course is designed to introduce international students to the standardized American style of writing and to help build a community among international students.
"The Global English classroom is one place where they can meet students who are in a similar boat," added Ross.
But the students share mixed reviews about the course's structure and content.
"I didn't find it exciting at all," said Wharton freshman Guillermo Kunin, though he said the course helped him improve his writing.
Other international students said the course helped them develop writing skills on par with those of their American counterparts.
Some attributed the improvement to the extra hour of class per week - unlike the typical three-hour-per-week Penn course, professor Mera Lafferty of the English department and Associate Director of the Critical Writing Program Fayyaz Vellani conduct a fourth hour of Global English each week.
"This extra hour means more work, more understanding and more reading," Wharton freshman Ishaan Jain said.
Many students, like College freshman Xinpei Jiang, also said they enjoyed being allowed to select topics they wanted to write about.
But some students mistake it to be an English language class and hence consider it to be easier than other writing seminars.
Therefore, when Wharton freshman Aisha Saraf was asked to drop her writing seminar and switch to Global English after her diagnostic test, she felt "insulted" and said, "it hurt her ego" as she considered herself to be fluent in English.
Similarly, College freshman Francis Udler decided to take a regular writing seminar rather than Global English because "it seemed too easy."
Students enrolled in the class agreed the course was not that difficult.
Although Global English is a "legitimate writing seminar . it isn't that hard because the workload is less," College freshman Janis Kreilis said.
"I'm sure that it is easier than any other writing seminar because the teachers don't expect you to write with such proficiency," Kunin added.
But professors feel differently.
Vellani said the course is more "rigorous" because it includes a lot of one-on-one interaction.
