There are some skills you will not need after you graduate from college. Bringing up that one time you did a keg stand for a minute and a half freshman year won’t win you any points when you’re interviewing for a job. And explaining that you could have gone for longer if your inconsiderate (but hilarious) roommate hadn’t furiously pumped the tap, foamed up the keg and caused you to pass out and go head first into the wall will not wipe that horrified look off your interviewer’s face, either.
Writing skills, however, are much more important to getting a job. From the start, you need to be able to write a persuasive cover letter to even get your foot in the door, and from there you will need to demonstrate that your ability to effectively communicate with others.
A recent Madison Initiative for Undergraduates proposal would allow students in the College of Letters and Science to do just that. By completing a 15-credit track that strikes a middle ground between introductory and graduate-level classes, students could earn a certificate in written communications on their degree.
Some may argue writing skills should shine through in cover letters and other work, but cover letters are a limited medium for expression, and few employers are willing to read your ten page dissertation on Hungarian art you got an A on sophomore year. And just like no one would ask you to submit your lab reports from O-Chem to prove you are a qualified chemist, employers will rarely sift through stacks of essays to discover who is a distinguished writer and who is not.
Instead, recruiters rely on the institution to tell them about your skill set. If UW says you were a math major with a certificate in Spanish, companies tend to take their word for it rather than forcing you to spend a week computing integrals in Tijuana. After all, if they didn’t, it wouldn’t really be worth whatever it is you shell out to go here.
Anyway, certain programs within the L&S do already have an emphasis on writing and communication skills. History and political science, for example, spend a great deal of time critiquing ideas and forming arguments with pen and paper. The end result is a degree in one of those fields that comes with the recognition that the holder has extensive experience with communicating via the written word.
Other areas of college, however, do not delve much beyond the requirements of Comm. B. If you’re working toward a physics or chemistry degree, it’s (sometimes unfairly) assumed your work doesn’t enforce the same understanding of writing prowess. In fact, most people probably assume something closer to the opposite. At the same time, written communication skills are required in pretty much any job out there — technical or not. It is these majors that would benefit most from such a certificate.
Of course, all graduates of the university should still be proficient in writing. Nevertheless, that doesn’t change the fact that some students are more skilled or have more training than others. Just as it is important to note the difference between a BA and a BS in economics, it is useful — to students as well as potential employers — to recognize those who have not only achieved proficiency, but excellence in written communications.
This proposal is certainly smart, but it is far from radical. The College of Engineering recognizes that all companies — not just those that hire legal studies majors — want students who can rite reel good. To distinguish students who have completed extra coursework focusing on writing and presenting, the COE offers a Technical Communication Certificate. If those eggheads can see the value in such a program, shouldn’t it be clear to the editor of a newspaper?
By providing a pragmatic, useful certificate program that would help undergraduate students market themselves while searching for a job, this proposal strikes at the very core of the ideals underlying the MIU. It’s not too expensive, plenty innovative and, most importantly, allows students to enhance the value of the education they receive from UW-Madison.
Joe Labuz ([email protected]) is a junior majoring in Biomedical Engineering. In order to preempt any comment board insults, yes, he does wish he had the chance to earn a certificate in written communications but can’t because he doesn’t write well. Haha. LOL. D-bags.
