Weekly post

Adams' "Satellite Writing Centers" opens with an acknowledgment of a general studies-intensive university involving writing in every discipline. Writing instruction followed a fairly traditional protocol, and naturally these universities knew of and believed in the importance of good writing in any field.

I detest general studies requirements. Here's why.

You attend high school and you are required to take certain classes each year. It's not up for debate that you take math, science, reading/writing/literature, and some sort of history or government course. In college, you have applied to, been accepted at, and are paying tuition for an educational institution carefully constructed to prepare you for a professional life. If you are interested in a general studies degree, such as the one U-Mich offers, then that's fine. But universities should not require students to invest in subjects inapplicable to their field of study. If you are studying a certain subject, however, and an interdisciplinary understanding of an unrelated branch of study is pertinent to doing your job correctly, that's a different story. But I don't need to learn about kingdom/class/phylum/whatever for the TENTH TIME in my student career because it's a freakin' general requirement for every college student. It's a waste of my time, the professor's time, and my money.

With that said, I agree with the professors' beliefs in this article: Writing is important across every discipline. It's the one thing that unites us when everything else has failed. Writing Centers, therefore, warrant a place in any kind of university environment, not just land-grant colleges or general studies-intensive institutions. Writing opens up your rhetorical understand of the subject and of your environment, and those tools are invaluable.

I realize that rant didn't have much to do with satellite writing centers...more soon to come!