As shopping period enters its final days, we have begun to hear rumbles of discontent from our peers about Brown's "writing requirement" - a much-contested addition to the New Curriculum that raises questions about the nature of Brown's approach to liberal education and creates a divide between humanities and science concentrators. Brown's policy mandates that students must take at least two classes designated as WRIT or one WRIT class and proven significant evidence of writing skill later on. The goal is to demonstrate improvement in students' writing skills during their time at Brown. We stand behind the philosophy that writing is a vital part of liberal education and higher thinking, but believe there are several drawbacks to the requirement that should be addressed.
Good academic writing denotes an ability to critically analyze a situation and formulate a reasoned, appropriate and persuasive response. Our words reflect the framework of our thoughts, and learning to write well helps us to break down, rebuild and otherwise engage with ideas and arguments on a detailed, logical level. All of this comes without mentioning the fact that writing well is a skill applicable to almost every aspect of life, including both the career and personal sphere.
But we cannot ignore the fact that the writing requirement can and regularly does put a large group of students - namely, those heavily involved in mathematics, computer science and the hard sciences - at odds with the values of the New Curriculum so espoused and valued by the Brown establishment. There is only one WRIT-designated computer science course in the whole concentration, and this trend continues through most of the science and mathematics departments. This would force many students, particularly underclassmen who wish to use the freedom and flexibility of the New Curriculum to focus on their respective disciplines, to take classes with which they may not fully engage.
Moreover, it seems that the WRIT classification is often given arbitrarily. Some classes that require a significant amount of writing are not writing-designated, while others requiring less writing are considered WRIT. The Dean of the College's website also states that "writing-designated courses provide students with feedback about their writing," but it is difficult to see where this distinction is drawn, considering that many professors and teaching assistants give feedback about papers even if the class does not fulfill the writing requirement.
Given these concerns, we advocate adjusting the approach to the writing requirement at Brown. In addition to revisiting the criteria necessary for a class to fit the bill, it is important to restructure the requirement in departments like the sciences. We support the creation of more and better opportunities in science classes that allows science-oriented students to practice more analytical writing, and not just catalogical writing. This will provide students who wish to remain focused in scientific areas with the necessary structures to gain the writing experience they need.
The writing requirement in no way needs to compromise the New Curriculum. It just needs to take into account the wide spectrum encapsulated by a "liberal education."
Editorials are written by The Herald's editorial page board. Send comments to editorials@browndailyherald.com.
