Column: Advanced writing advances nothing | The Huntington News

Who enjoyed their advanced writing in the disciplines class? No? No one? Anyone find it worthwhile? Anyone come out of it a more confident student? Thought not.Maybe it?s because that class is beyond pointless. I?m currently enrolled in a general summer session advanced writing class, and if my professor actually took attendance, I would have failed out due to absences in the first month.

The day I got my e-bill, I looked through the syllabus and thought, ?Wow, this school forced me to pay tuition for a complete waste of time.?

My class was set up around four assignments: an analysis of my potential ?professional discourse community,? a cover letter, a popular article and a ?professional presentation.? Not one of these assignments furthered my education.

A ?discourse community? is an arbitrary academic phrase for the people you consider colleagues in a professional environment. Our class wrote a paper on our discourse community?s vernacular, priorities, level of professionalism and professional expectations.

Writing this paper ? even thinking about the idea of a ?discourse community? ? is pointless because these are all things you can only pick up intuitively while working in a professional environment. Writing about it only served to confuse an idea that comes naturally.

Then there was the cover letter; literally everyone writes one of these in co-op class. I handed in the same exact letter I wrote for my co-op class. I got an A. Enough said.

Lastly, there was the popular article. This basically means articulating ideas within your ?discourse community? so that they?re easy and accessible for a popular audience. For anyone who does not intend to write for a popular audience, this is an arbitrary exercise. For those who do intend to write for a popular audience, they don?t need to do it in advanced writing. This is the age of the Internet, popular outlets are everywhere ? places where people who are actually interested can hear your voice. My advanced writing class is not one of those places. Let the lazy, uninterested ?peer editing? sheets I got from classmates attest to that.

The same idea applies to the ?professional presentation.? The idea is that you get to practice public speaking in front of a small class. My friends in business classes have done dozens of these by now. They are in a major that values this skill. Their professors teach them how to do it. For those who do not wish to hone this skill ? and are not going into a field where it?s required ? it?s pointless.

Regardless of whether public speaking is important, getting up in front of a class composed of apathetic people in random majors and giving a one-off presentation to a smattering of applause and no feedback does no one any good. It?s just a headache.

Before aid this class costs roughly $4,000. The university requires it for most majors. It?s useless.

The president, as is most of higher education, is promising to work toward making college more affordable. How about we start by making sure we?re spending our money on actual education.

Bill Shaner can be reached at comments@huntnewsnu.com.

Source: http://huntnewsnu.com/2012/08/column-advanced-writing-advances-nothing/

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