Rhetoric and Writing Main Menu INTRODUCTION to COLLEGE WRITING RHETORICAL ANALYSIS ARGUMENT CRITICAL READING AND THINKING RESEARCH COLLABORATION RESOURCES and TOOLS TECHNOLOGY

Composition

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Most colleges have a writing requirement for their baccalaureate degrees. The colleges that don’t often have strict writing requirements for courses across academic disciplines. Why? Whether you pursue an academic career or professional career, you’ll most likely need to write well. Employers often report in surveys that writing is one of their desired skills, and many employers complain about graduates’ poor communication skills. While the technology for written communication is consistently changing, from quill and parchment to electronic publication, the required skills have remained relatively stable. Later in this text you’ll learn that the ancient Greeks were establishing the basics of rhetoric over two thousand years ago. And those skills were primarily meant to be used by speakers and not written words. Regardless of the specific technology used, writing has remained an important academic and professional skill. 

Many students make the understandable mistake of thinking that writing is an activity that a person either can or can’t do. I’ve often read eloquent passages from students claiming that they can’t write. The truth is that writing is a skill, a skill which most people can learn. You may never write like Ernest Hemingway or Ta-Nehisi Coates, but you can learn to write clear, concise prose. This learning will take instruction and practice, just like any other skill. 

Writing can be difficult; I suspect that’s part of the reason many people struggle with writing, or why they report that they “hate” writing. Think of writing like playing a sport. People exercise and build their strength to help their performance in a sport; we ask you to read and respond to writing to build some of your brain’s writing “muscles.” Athletes study games and strategies to succeed in their sports; we’ll read successful writers and discuss strategies for effective writing. Finally, athletes play practice games and play against other athletes to hone their skills; we’ll write and write and write to develop our writing skills. If you do this, you’ll find that while writing may not seem any easier for you, you will have the skills necessary to successfully complete writing tasks. 
 

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