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Min-Zhan Lu’s
Shanghai Quartet, one of the books we’ll use for this course
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Why a Writing Requirement. . .
If you are like
a good number of students taking ENG 101-102 to fulfill the university’s
writing requirement, you may feel that the requirement is just something to
be gotten over with, a few more units or notches on that graduation belt. You’re not going to be an English major
(although you might consider a double major or a minor in English), so why
all this English? We sometimes hear from students, “I’m going to be an engineer, so I don’t need English” or “I’m a business major, so I
don’t need English” or “I’ll have a secretary who will take care of all my
correspondence, so I don’t need English.”
You may be surprised to learn that accrediting agencies in engineering and business and law demand that students earning degrees in those
fields learn to write effectively.
Still, it’s not
just accrediting agencies. Employers,
too, expect that U.K. students will
come to them with advanced writing skills. We in the academy frequently receive an
earful: “Don’t you make students write
anymore? ” We need to assure them (truthfully) that you are writing during
your college career. Employers want employees who can convey complex ideas
clearly, without simplifying them or offending their audience. Employers want presentations that are clear, professional, visually pleasing,
and effective—not just to other engineers or business folk or lawyers, but to
lay clients. In fact, your immediate goals—to get a good grade—might be in
conflict with employers’ long-range goals: Employers are really not interested in
whether you received an “A” or a “B” or a “C” in your writing class. They are
interested in the writing you do for them—and in your discipline and
commitment to high standards of written communication. Increasingly, they expect that you will
know something about writing with new technologies.
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