Most college students ask themselves the following two questions.

The answer to both questions is the same: Improve your writing skills. The following sections explain why writing well is essential to your success in college and on the job.

In general, the more senses you use in learning, the more easily you learn and the more you will remember. Writing facilitates learning by engaging two senses at once: You take in information visually while reading, and you engage your sense of touch as you put your pen to paper or your fingers on a keyboard while writing. Taking notes, outlining, summarizing, and annotating enhance learning by engaging your attention and getting you to think about the subject matter as you connect, define, and evaluate ideas. Writing paragraphs and essays helps you think through issues in a sustained way, challenging you to devise reasons and find appropriate supporting evidence.

Writing also helps you think and solve problems by forcing you to define issues or problems and allowing you to see new aspects of them. For example, one student had a father-in-law who seemed hostile and uncooperative. The student described her problem in an email to a friend: “He looks at me as if I’m going to take his son to the end of the earth and never bring him back.” When she reread what she had written, she realized that her father-in-law might resent her because he was afraid of losing contact with his son. She looked for ways to reassure her father-in-law and strengthen their relationship. Writing about the problem helped the student define it and discover ways to solve it.

Writing well allows you to demonstrate what you’ve learned in the many college courses (such as psychology, biology, and political science) that require you to read articles, essays, reports, and textbooks and then write about what you’ve read. Writing is important on the job as well. In almost all jobs, workers need to communicate effectively with supervisors, coworkers, patients, clients, and customers. You can expect to write plenty of letters, email messages, and reports. A study conducted by the Collegiate Employment Research Institute found that employers consistently want the “total package” — both technical knowledge and strong oral and written communication skills — in recent college graduates. Because your writing course offers both immediate and long-range benefits, it is one of the most important college courses you will take.