As a teaching associate for Fresno State’s first-year writing program, I have noticed that many students believe that writing skills will help them in college, and, well, not a whole lot of other places. Both undergraduates and graduate students often seem to think of writing assignments as hurdles to get past, rather than steps to improving their abilities and, ultimately, making them more marketable in their chosen careers. Now that most professional communication is email-based, I’m curious why so many students don’t consider writing important for everyday life. How can this misconception be corrected?
The university may contribute to students’ idea of writing as a solely academic pursuit with the emphasis of writing curriculum on scholarly journals. It’s true that most college graduates probably won’t be perusing peer-reviewed articles on a daily basis. However, the skills I learned—both written and comprehensive—from reading and responding to scholarly journals have been the building blocks for every piece of text I’ve drafted. The ability to transfer thought to paper is a learned skill, one that is improved with practice. This practice can come in the form of freewriting, annotating articles and textbooks, or even through reading (and maybe even responding) purely for fun.
Virtually everyone can find a form of writing that they will enjoy reading. This writing doesn’t have to be academic or peer-reviewed. If you like fiction written for young adults, there’s no shame in reading it, no matter your age. Read BuzzFeed articles if they interest you, or topics in Google Groups based on your favorite things. Better yet, try making a blog to express your reactions to what you’ve read, or leave YouTube comments that actually relate to the video you just watched.
Even professions that aren’t thought to emphasize communication or expression require writing skills. In a recent interview with Business Insider, former Microsoft engineer Mike Borozdin extolled the virtues of writing to computer programmers: “I would advise folks in software to do one thing, and that’s write. . . . You need to know how to express yourself.” According to Borozdin, “Once you create a successful piece of software, you’re probably going to be writing English as much as you’re going to be writing Java or Objective C.” In 2011, a reporter for The Washington Post asked a group of executives and business leaders from multiple fields if good writing skills are still valuable today: “All of them emphasized the criticality of good writing skills and said that writing is even more important than in previous years.” According to the executives, “Professionals spend more time each day writing and are inundated with written communications (e-mails, reports, memos and such), so it is imperative that employees be able to write succinctly and write well.” Unfortunately, the executives felt that college graduates’ writing skills were on the decline. Now more than ever, college students have much to gain by improving their abilities to write and read.
We as consultants, instructors, and tutors need to remind students of writing’s uses beyond academia. Students I’ve talked with have been surprised to learn that they can schedule consulting sessions at the Graduate Writing Studio to review and discuss documents for professional development, such as résumés and cover letters for job applications. We need to take opportunities to emphasize the purposes of writing: communication, articulating thoughts accurately, and discovery (sometimes it’s easier to organize your thoughts when you’ve got them on paper). Even reading and writing for fun will improve one’s ability to write. Most importantly, composition is a key skill for students from all disciplines. Writing does not have to be a secret art form, practiced only by elbow-patched academics in moonlit cafes.
Eryn Baldrica-Guy
Teaching Associate, First-Year Writing Program
fresno state graduate writing studio 