Students in English Comp courses learn to write so that they can better communicate their thoughts and ideas. Basic writing abilities are typically desired by employers these days. Beyond that, students in Composition courses, in the process of researching, drafting and revising according to a certain structure, might through their writing make discoveries that spur reflection and discussion.

As intimidating as English Composition might be to some, writing is something upon which many of us rely for communication. We have done so for years, Yancey noted – through wartime correspondence, for example, and through arts-related assignments that were part of the federal Works Progress Administration’s attempts to help lift the country from the Great Depression. More recently, we’ve begun communicating through blogs, Facebook, Twitter updates and, like President Barack Obama, through e-mails and text messages.

What English Comp teaches is the writing process. English students might, for example, learn about context – or writing for a specific purpose and audience in a certain genre. If you were trying to enlist support for Barack Obama’s Presidential campaign, for example, you might write a persuasive essay with backup for your cause for the newspaper’s Op Ed section. If you were writing a newspaper article about Obama, your report – an expository piece, as this genre is known – would likely be more objective.

Genres taught as part of English Composition also include descriptives, or using metaphors and arousing the senses. They include narratives, or creating or retelling stories that include characters, plots and more. Poetry is another genre that might be taught as part of Composition – sometimes, but not always, involving rhymes and known for being powerful and to the point.

English Comp teaches also about critical thinking – or the ability to analyze, criticize and obtain ideas. The reader, in separating fact from opinion and belief from knowledge should, with critical thinking, be able to form conclusions from what’s written. As part of this, perhaps, students in Composition learn also about writing structures and formats and about including information about sources.

Some English Composition courses these days might incorporate digital elements into the instruction, perhaps even provide digital storytelling assignments. According to Modern Age editor RV Young, English students also often are assigned contemporary readings. Young, in an interview that the John Locke Foundation has posted on You Tube, described pop culture readings as shallow and said that they can keep students in an extended childhood. Classics from the likes of Plato, Aristotle and John Locke, he noted, provide a foundation from which students might better assess information that comes at them at a “record pace.”

Yancey calls this the Age of Composition. It certainly seems a preferred means of communication. With text messages, e-mail messages, online chats and social network updates, there has, perhaps, been no other time in history when people have written as often. What students learn from composition class will not only help them with their writing abilities, but also prepare them for future careers given that having proper writing skills is necessary for just about any profession. If students are interested in English composition courses, they are able to take a free course on Test Drive College.