The Importance of English Rhetoric and Composition for an IT Degree

Some colleges require first year students to take an English Rhetoric and Composition class their first year. Other colleges don’t. This course is important for students so that they can understand their writing skills coming into college. Reading and writing skills are the most important skills to have because they apply to most fields of study, if not all. Math is probably the second most important, but it is not used in all fields like reading and writing skills are. Students who do not take an English course in college will be at a slight disadvantage later in their studies. There are many reasons for this.

First, being good at reading and writing helps in other classes in college because every field of study needs the basics of reading and writing. Every skill requires some decent knowledge of reading and writing, and this helps in college with answering questions and writing reports. An example could be one person goes to a college where the students are required to take an English course their first year and the other college they are not. The student that is taking the English course is most likely going to do better in other courses because he has better reading skills, so he can read textbooks faster or pick up on bigger vocabulary used in textbooks as opposed to the student who is not taking an English course their first year. This student is going to fall behind in his or her reading skill and is going to struggle when it comes to reading textbooks and completing assignments. Writing skills are also important because some classes like science classes require the student to write lab reports. By showing that you have good grammar and vocabulary, the professor can grade the paper appropriately and most likely give a higher score than a student who has worse skills from not taking an English course.

Also, I would think that taking an English course in college can be one of the easier courses to take when applying for general education credits. I think this because most students have taken English courses every year throughout high school and middle school, and it would not be very difficult with background experience. This course is also really easy because it is all online this semester, and there are limited assignments. I would definitely recommend taking this course to students who are not required to take it because it would most likely count as a general education course, and it is not very difficult. There are not many assignments, and can work really well with a work schedule. Most colleges require first year students to take this course, and I think that everyone should so that they have an easier experience in college, and students should be focused on paying their tuition or saving up money.

Also, it is important to understand that when getting a job, a person has to write a resume. This can have a huge impact on a person because this can determine if someone gets a higher paying job. By having good English skills and showing an employer how smart you are, you can have a better advantage of getting a job than someone else. I would explain to an employer that this course helped me learn to write and express myself better.

All of my friends do have to take an English course in their first years of college. If they did not have to take one, I would definitely recommend taking this course. My field of study is information technology and information systems, and I need English skills for my career for writing reports and also for creating job resumes. When writing software, having good English skills can help when it comes to creating titles and descriptions in programs and websites. In this course, you learn about retorical devices, like ethos, pathos, and logos, and how to plan an essay, create a draft, and finish a final paper. I would recommend to take this course, as it can look good for classes and employers.