Perception of Reading and writing difficulties by students not selected through the University entrance exam

ABSTRACT This article presents the results of a survey of writing and reading difficulties pointed out by students attending the ProFIS, an affirmative action preparatory course for public high school graduates aiming to enter Unicamp, in the years 2012, 2014, 2016, 2018 and 2020. For this, the answers given to the following question: “What are your difficulties on reading and writing? Be specific”. The systematization and analysis of the students’ answers points to a greater occurrence of writing difficulties in relation to reading difficulties. Among the noted writing difficulties, there is a predominance of issues related to the planning and elaboration of the argumentative essay text, with emphasis on the use of punctuation. Among reading difficulties, there is a predominance of difficulty in understanding, from the lexicon to less familiar texts, in addition to lack of attention when reading. These findings are relevant for better understanding of sociolinguistic issues linked to these students, as representatives of minoritized social groups, and to the ways in which they reproduce schooled metapragmatics of writing.