Typical example of college writing I see

[hatrack]

52. Sadly, I think the problem is even more fundamental than not learning how to write . . .

It's never learning how to read.

I read constantly growing up. I probably spent 20% of my life from age five to HS graduation at the library. I mean, I did other stuff - messed around with my brother and friends, and rode bikes and built dams in the creek down the hill and caught snakes and shot off bottle rockets and all that stuff.

But summer, winter, school, vacation, it didn't matter what time of year, there was a book nearby or in my hand almost every day. History, science, pulp horror, fantasy, biographies, adventure stories, science fiction, Greek myths, the Brothers Grimm and the Brothers Karamazov (eventually).

I couldn't have told you what a dangling participle or a gerund were with a gun to my head. However, I knew how to write because I knew (more or less) what good writing and bad writing looked like, and had at least a decent idea of how to express myself.

More to the point, I fell in love with reading, and with words, and unless you love words, you'll never learn to love to write.