I agree that the pun in the title was very clever! Also I agree that this piece of writing definitely spoke to most of us – we all want to know why we have to do the assignments we do and how they will affect us in the future. I know I have heard many people say how liberal arts schools make you take classes that do not pertain to your future career – I believe that First Year Writing courses are very important to our future major because they help you gain experience as a writer.

I also was very enlightened by the argument in the article. The writing we do does prepare us for future writing and assignments.

Overall, this article has a good purpose and addresses a question we all ask ourselves one point or another: why am I doing this? It’s for the skills behind the assignment; we learn to research, we learn to critical think, we learn the writing process. The writing we do in college matters and helps us in the long run.

I agree with Matt that this was a relatable article. I really like how she addresses that she is aware most students think these first year courses are a waste of time and do not relate to their major. She makes some good points about this FYC, but I still do not think in my future career (training of horses) I will ever use this type of writing. I know she says writing is incorporated into many careers but for me personally, the most writing I have seen trainers do is about a description of a horse. Though my major does not really relate to these first year english classes, I still do not believe they are a waste of time. I just believe they don’t benefit my major. I do think however, they benefit me in a way of broadening my knowledge and improving my writing. Like she said, these courses are designed to help us in any writing situation, so maybe it may even help me when applying for a job or something like that. She also said that these courses should make writers critical thinkers. I think it may possibly also make us think critically outside of writing. This then would benefit everyone. I think these writing courses are good to know and create good skills. Also, people change careers all the time. It sounded like this author did not think she was going to be teaching one day, but she ended up doing that and using what she learned in her writing courses.

I am really glad we had to read this article, “Composition as a Write of Passage” because I am the person that Singh-Corcoran talks about. I find myself asking “why do I have to take all these extra classes that I’m not interested in?” all the time. I always knew that it is good to be exposed to a diverse curriculum, but I never completely understood why. The funny thing is, when I was in elementary school up to freshman year in high school, I always hated English and Writing Courses. It was something I always struggled with and just generally did not enjoy. Coincidently, the more I was forced to write, the better I got at it, and the more I learned to enjoy writing.

At the end of the article, Singh-Corcoran talks about the world of work. I took great interest in this section because in the example Lauren didn’t know how to write for her job position, but because she learned prior to work how to write different genres of papers, she easily learned how to write the files she needed. This gives me a sense of relief because I am unsure of what specific type of writing I will need in my career, but because I am learning now how to adjust to different writing requirements, I have faith that the same thing will apply with me and my job.

I agree that this passage is very relatable to everyone in a first year english class. The author made it very clear that she was talking to first year college students. This helped me really understand the article because I was able to relate to it so well. To be honest I thought this when I came into college. I was like I’m pre-vet: I’m not going to need to learn how to use rhetorical devices and what not. I also thought it was a waste because I had more important courses like bio and equine health. As the semester went on though, I learned that I will need to use certain types of writing in my field. All professions use writing at some point, even if it’s only a couple paragraphs compared to the ten pages we normally do in college. I am glad that we have to take first year english classes because I really think they prepare you to be a knowledgeable writer. Being a knowledgeable writer will help in any profession because it will make you sound more intelligent, and it will help you be able to analyze what other people are writing about. In my profession specifically, I will probably be writing emails, paperwork,and possible reading and writing research. I will be doing a lot of communication, so I need that strong background in writing. I think the point of this article was to help people understand that even though you think you will not be writing in your major, you probably will be and you need to know how to do it. I like how in class now we are focusing on things that are centered around our major. I think it helps the first year students get a feel of what they will be doing later in their college careers and in their professions. Overall I think this is a good article for freshman to read. I think it really helps you think how important the first year classes are, even if you think they are not.

I have more of an apathetic opinion about this essay. The idea of questioning Composition and Rhetoric courses in one’s first year of a liberal arts college might have been relatable to other students, but to me, I never questioned the validity of the courses I was taking this and last semester. I was not thinking about how they could apply to my life, I was blindly following them without any thought as to why I was taking them. I do think that a lot of times, Composition, and Rhetoric teaches you a lot of skills needed in certain career’s and I am glad that I am taking them because now I know how to shift my writing to fit what is needed in different discourses. I think these courses not only teach you how to write, but they are helpful in helping one understand all of the different types of writing in the world, such as the media, or different professional writings one may have no idea how to read. In this article, it also talked about how Composition and Rhetoric helps you with critical thinking and I think that is extremely important. Critical thinking helps one get ahead in their careers because it is extremely prevalent in every career and it is a skill that everyone should acquire at one point in their lives.

Then, later in the article, it mentions how one student eventually found out that his FYC course did help his writing because he had to write a description of a model of an ethanol plant for his senior year. His first-year course had taught him to conform to standards of writing and to remember who his audience was. When anybody is writing important formal papers, it is essential to figure out who your audience is and write to them because that means that you are actively trying to reach them as readers and engage them. Similarly, conforming to standards previously set by others writing in your field is extremely necessary and I am glad that I now know how to do that. In addition to that, one should know how to write a proposal or a plan while not straying too far from the standards. There is a section in the paper which discusses a former student going onto a job at Hewlett-Packard. Writing was a major part of her job, but she did not know the genre or how to write all of the press releases, memos, and emails that were a large part of her job. She did not have help, but she read up on the and researched everything that she needed to know before drafting these documents herself. I am grateful for college and specifically these freshman year English courses because I did not realize that once students go out into the world, they do not have teachers to help them figure out the writing in their jobs.

I agree with Matt that this was a relatable article for most of us and the title can drag the readers’ attention to the piece. Sometimes in class kids would ask “when are we ever going to use this in the real world?” Honestly, I think it all depends on your major. For me personally, I am majoring in psychology so I will be doing all sorts of writing. The FYS classes guided me in the right direction of how my writing should look like for the future. These types of classes in our early college semesters are mandatory for a reason. We need to have the knowledge and confidence in ourselves that we have what it takes to be a successful writer. Writing is not for everyone so you have to build up to have the knowledge you need and you will know all the ins and outs of writing. The purpose of writing classes are to have the students exposed to all the different types of writing in case we ever come across having to write a paper in our future careers. I believe that no matter what you career is, you will always need to know how to write, even if it’s just the basics of it. Writing can make you go a long way. Writing can help you apply for jobs in the future and it guides us to be more professional. Overall, I think this was an easy read and very relatable for first year students. There’s always a good reason for everything.

When I first opened the article it was sort of long which felt like it was going to drag on. I was not a fan of it being in textbook form but it did have good information in it. I like how the article could relate to us because we are in composition writing so it helps understand the course a lot more. I have to agree with Brittany that we will be doing all sorts of writing because I am also in the psychology field. I feel like this article did a well job steering us in the right direction for the composition writings. I feel like this article gave me more knowledge on the composition as a write of passage. In the section about learning how to learn to write I like how it taught you how it should go and what we should be aware of. I liked how that was in bullet points because it helps the reader get a sense of what should be in the writing. In my opinion I like that better in bullet point form because it is straight forward as to what is expected in the paper so it is easier to write your paper. I like the section of writing outside FYC. The reason why I like that section is because it applies to my major like I stated previously. It showed me how exactly it would be used in my major as well as had someone from my field talk about it. Overall, I feel like this piece that we have read has been the best one yet because not only does it relate to my field it also gives me an insight of exactly how it will be used. Even though it was long it was very informational and it flowed really easily that I finished reading it pretty quickly.

I agree with everyone here that we can all relate to this topic being students in college. We’ve all questioned why do we need to take certain courses and that they will never help is in the long even back in high school this question always came up. However my first writing course here at Centenary refreshed my memory a bit from what I’ve learned In high school and I’ve also learned new things. Writing is major part of Criminal justice. Writing many reports when on duty happens daily. The reports that officers need to write are basically a narrative telling a story on the events that took place, and every detail is need of what happened. Overall, this article wasn’t bad because it was something that I have experienced and can relate to.

I agree with Nathalie Singh-Corcoran that a lot of college freshman do feel like FYC are not as helpful to them that classes that are related to their major. Personally I agree I don’t think I’m going to use a lot of what I learned in my FYC especially as an equine student, like Alyssa said in our major it’s a lot of the writing that’s done are advertisements for lesson or horses for sale not a lot of true writing or research. I understand the point of FYC is to make sure everyone knows how to write at the college level and prepare them for the types of writing they may see in the future. FYC’s are important and it’s a good baseline for everyone even if not all the assignments are not useful for every student. Its important for everyone who is eventually going to become a professional in their industry to know how to write properly and do some basic math. We all wonder why we have to take FYC’s and most of the time are not the biggest fan of them but I do think that even though they may no be the most fun classes they do provide us with a variety of different tools that can help up in the future. Therefore I would never consider them a waste of time, they are important whether they are fun or not I still benefit from the class.

The pun was a good idea. Just in the first paragraph, I felt the same way as she did. Being equine, like many others, I always think, what good will writing do for me? FYC is there for people to learn the skills of writing. It’s for future writing abilities. Even though it may seem pointless, it is there to be the foundation of your writing skills. What I also relate to is her experience of what she learned. For example, she lists the “groundworks of her future writing life”.
*how I could use writing to think through my newly forming ideas;
• how a piece of writing always has an audience;
• how to locate, evaluate, and incorporate sources;
• and how important it is to get meaningful feedback so that I could produce better writing and become a better writer.