English 130

I’ve been thinking about our discussion last class, and I believe that the arguments for or against a composition english course were lost in the multitude of sports and ball-handling analogies.  I do think a composition course is beneficial, especially for people who enter higher education without strong writing skills, regardless of what field they go into.  Even though a history paper and english paper are very different, composition isn’t teaching history majors to write english papers, it provides the groundwork for being able to support any sort of idea in a structured and though out argument.  This is why the sports training arguments don’t really apply.  In most football or rugby practices I’ve ever been to a huge amount of time hasn’t been devoted to game-specific training.  Most practice is based on strength and athleticism, fundamentals like running in between cones and up stairs, this is exactly what english 130 focuses on, fundamentals, which I don’t think lead any weak writer astray, regardless of discipline.  The final project in my english 130 class was essentially “write a long paper about literally anything.”  The class taught students how to come up with a point and do research to back that point up.