Transcript Lesson 1 Essentials Video: Writing

GRETCHEN: The best thing about college writing is you learn a lot and you become a better writer. And the worst thing about college writing is it's college writing so it's going to be difficult. And you're going to have to rewrite things. You're going to have to write on books that you might not want to read. But once it's over, you realize you've become a better writer than you were when you started.

ALICE 1: You might be an incredibly intelligent person. But if you can't communicate with people and if you can't articulate what you're thinking, it's not useful in the real world.

ASHIA: In our class, we've been working on rhetorical analysis. And to me, rhetorical analysis just means, basically, making a connection with your audience, making your audience believe that you are a reliable source, and that you really have a deep connection with what you're saying.

ALICE 2: Now we're not writing for some generic English class most of the time, but it's for actually communicating new ideas. Or things that we're supposed to think of ourselves. Independent thought. And so because these ideas we're trying to communicate become much, much more complex, clarity is a really big thing that I think college writers have to consider.

LIZ: I have written multiple papers and multiple subjects in college. At least every class you take, they're going to want to paper. Psychology, they want to paper. Philosophy, they want to paper. Multicultural studies, they're going to want to paper.

RYAN: But when it came to college, they are really, really in depth on the finer details of the paper. It wasn't so much have five body paragraphs with five sentences each. It was more about I want to know what you're thinking, I want to understand what you're trying to say. And I want you to say it in the right way, using correct English.

NIA: It showed me that college writing doesn't have to be, oh I'm writing for a grader. Oh my gosh, I hate writing papers, and it's so difficult. It definitely helps you build as a person. I definitely feel like I carry myself better. I know what rhetoric means. I'm not afraid to express myself. It definitely helped me, all kinds of ways.

VIN-THUY: I wish that science majors, like myself, could see the value in writing. The value in composition class. Because most people I talk to, especially engineering students, and I should say that. But especially the engineering students, they are always saying that once I'm done with Red Rocks, when I go to another school, I'm done with writing. That's it. No more writing for then on. But then they don't really see that writing is such an important part of your life. And it's something that's lifelong. Right?