That’s right, it’s writing, says Chris Thaiss of the University Writing Program
Writing is particularly hard for students because they are usually on a tight deadline and need to do research, making assignments both difficult architectural and creative tasks, Chris Thaiss says. (Karin Higgins/UC Davis photo)
UC Davis News Service intern Tom Dotan recently sat down with Chris Thaiss, the Clark Kerr Presidential Chair and director of the University Writing Program, to talk about whether all students should be concerned about being better writers, why writing is so hard and a few tricks of the trade.
Tom Dotan: Why should students take writing at the college level?
Chris Thaiss: Everybody is always developing as a writer. No matter which major students are going into, when they graduate they’re going to have to go into a profession in which they’re going to be communicating much of the time through writing. CEOs and personnel directors looking for qualified employees, as well as graduate schools, place writing at the top of skills that students are going to need when they come out of college.
The other reason it’s important is because people continue to want to express themselves. There are ways that they want to develop not only as communicators but also as thinkers and citizens. Having these opportunities at the college level is really important.
Something is better than nothing
Dotan: Why do you think it’s so hard for people to write?
Thaiss: It’s a challenge to put thought, to put feeling, to put your grand ideas into actual words in a way that is going to be enjoyable or convincing to another person. It’s always a challenge; writers are always groaning. So when students get the task of creating an essay — usually on a fairly tight time limit and involving some research — that’s a difficult architectural and creative task.
A rule of writing is “something is always better than nothing.” That means if you are facing a blank page or a blank screen, shut off your “critic” for a minute. Just write down what you know. As long as you’ve got something there, you can work with it; the big problem is just getting to that point. To give people hope, the more you do it, the easier it gets.
Dotan: What sort of classes does University Writing Program offer that help with the upper-division writing requirements?
Thaiss: We offer courses in business and technical writing, writing for engineers, writing in health professions, biological sciences, journalism, education; writing in legal fields, writing in international relations, writing in history, writing in design, writing in film studies, etc.
Class for journalists
Dotan: You mention journalism. How does that fit under the University Writing Program umbrella and what do students do in that class?
‘All the studies of businesses, graduate schools, CEOs and personnel directors looking for qualified employees place writing at the top of skills that students are going to need when they come out of college.’
Chris Thaiss
Thaiss: It’s a class set up for students interested in becoming journalists or in being exposed to certain genres that they might not work on otherwise. We do feature writing, profiles and interviews.
Another thing students in this class deal with is reporting: how to cover an event and writing with some flair and style. For the first time this spring, we are offering an advanced journalism course, and it’s going to be a special-topics class. In coming quarters, it could be an investigative reporting class, science journalism class or environmental journalism — many possibilities.
Dotan: Are technical writing jobs available for recent graduates?
Thaiss: Yes, very much so. It’s a huge field because we’re an information society and we rely on the ability of people within organizations not only to communicate with their colleagues, but also with people outside the organization.
I’ve only been at Davis for a year. Before that, I was at George Mason University in northern Virginia, near the center of the federal government. We had a large writing program there, with 200 majors in the program. Most of them were preparing to be technical writers and business writers within government: There were always jobs — often more jobs than there were well-qualified people available for them.
Dotan: There’s been some talk about a writing minor in the near future. How would that work, and how could it complement someone’s major?
Thaiss: There are two likely models. We’ve proposed a 20-unit requirement--students could put together a series of writing courses, plus an internship in a company or agency. The other is to set up tracks, like science writing, journalism, or business and tech writing.
And then that minor would be a credential that students could point to when they are looking for employment.
I can’t stress this enough. Corporations and government agencies are looking for people who not only have specific skills learned within their major, but also for people who’d want to move up in the organization. No one moves up in any organization unless they are skilled communicators.
Proposal writing for artists
Dotan: How can someone getting a major in, say, art, still need a writing minor or emphasis?
Thaiss: If you’re in the arts — whether you’re a visual artist, a dancer, a musician, a theatre person — you need to finance and publicize your art and your talent. Every dance company, every theatre company in this country, is always looking for more money in order to find a stage and opportunities for them to do their work.
Artists must attract donors and audiences. And that means that they have to write proposals and be able to explain their art to the public. We don’t live in a country that has a huge national budget for the arts, so there’s lots of responsibility put on the artists themselves to convince wealthy people and the government to give them money to do their work.
Dotan: Is it possible to teach students to be good writers? Especially those who, after years of composition instruction before college, still believe that they can’t write?
Thaiss: Many students come into college lacking confidence that they can write. They need to appreciate the writing experience they do bring with them. Nowadays, when students come to the university, most of them have been writing for a numbers of years. But many of them have done that in ways that they wouldn’t even consider to be writing: text messaging, e-mail, Facebook. These are all ways that students use writing as a tool of communication.
But as people are preparing for careers, they need to think about the kinds of writing they’re going to need both in the university and afterward. There are many techniques that we use in the University Writing Program to help develop people further, depending on the levels of expertise they bring with them.
Are Aggies good writers?
Dotan: How do you feel about the Aggies as writers?
Thaiss: By and large, the Aggies are good writers. The biggest challenge that UC Davis students face is that many have not been required to write in most of their classes. Some of the things that I ask them to do are very fresh and new to them. They have trouble getting used to those. But they’re smart, clever, imaginative people, and they are in the right environment. Once these students practice and can revise first attempts, I see some impressive writing.
Dotan: Let’s go back to that old scrooge of writing, the five-paragraph essay. How does that work in today’s writing?
Thaiss: I love talking about this. I think a big problem is that in high school all college-bound students take standardized writing tests, whether they are state tests or the new SAT writing samples.
This five-paragraph convention used to be related to analytical thinking, but it’s been watered down to a formula that people are taught to write for tests. I’m not saying it’s totally worthless; writing anything is better than writing nothing.
But what students have to realize is that when they come to college, no teacher is going to want them to write something in only five paragraphs, nor will the teacher count the number of paragraphs in the essay.
One of the things that’s limiting about the five-paragraph essay is the way it is taught: In the first paragraph tell ’em what you’re going to tell ’em, then have three body paragraphs, then write in the last paragraph what you said you’re were going to do.
In college, the accuracy of your information, the cogency of your thinking, your ability to see different points of view: That’s what is really prized, not just the length.