If you think you're going to get away with never having to write in your whole life, then you are sorely mistaken. My main job is as a technical editor for a doctor who has to write clinical research articles. He never thought he would ever have to give presentations or write articles about his clinical practice. He may have thought his clinic was an entity unto itself. But because his research can be so beneficial to similar specialists, he had to leave his local bubble and begin to communicate with other experts in his field.
This is a man who only pulls out a pen to scribble barely legible prescriptions on pad. All of his articles are dictated. So, in a way, yes, this man can get away with never reading MLA, APA, or Chicago. He doesn't have to worry about comma splices or capitalization. He has a secretary transcribe all his dictations for him, and he pays me to check his grammar, punctuation, and style.
But....he still needs to have certain fundamental skills. You can pay people to edit, but you can't pay people to think for you.
Sure, my client can get away with not knowing anything about grammar/punctuation because this will be corrected for him before his peers see his mistakes. (Side note: This doesn't keep me from thinking he sounds really stupid sometimes. He's a relative, so I can say he's dumb, right?) The man is actually brilliant, but he has trouble communicating his thoughts.
We teach first-year composition because ideas have to be communicated in some way, shape, or form in every discipline. (If you can think of a discipline that doesn't require the free and open exchange of ideas, let me know).
Even if most of us can get away with poor grammar and imperfect punctuation the rest of our lives, the quality of our ideas and how we present those ideas will be a constant, outward signifier of our own intellect.
We have to teach students to practice analyzing, interpreting, and conveying their ideas in words. Resumes, office memos, professional emails--so much communicating is done in writing, and people can easily judge you (or misjudge you) by your written communication. If we can get students to improve the quality and cogency of their ideas and messages, we can make them better communicators in any field in which they choose to specialize.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
6 comments:
(If you can think of a discipline that doesn't require the free and open exchange of ideas, let me know).
Political strategist.
Your client's existence disproves my whole argument for why we should learn writing skills... Thanks.
LOrna wrote: "But....he still needs to have certain fundamental skills. You can pay people to edit, but you can't pay people to think for you."
This is an important point amid many in a good post. Writing is not just the skill of communicating to others. It comes earlier in the game, when we are trying to turn our intuitions into ideas, that is, when we are trying to think.
Hey,
Great post. But is the only reason why we teach freshman composition just communication skills. Do students not also learn valuable verbal communication skills in classes like public speaking? Undoubtedly, this is one of the reasons why we teach composition, but I have to think there are more. Though I definitely agree that communication skills are frequently not what they should be among emerging high school students and need to be improved.
I agree. Students often have the same attitude towards writing as your boss. I have had many friends who have based their choice of major on how much writing they believed that major would require.
Post a Comment