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I’m a software developer with a bunch of industry experience. I’m also a comp sci professor, and whenever a CS alum working in industry comes to talk to the students, I always like to ask, “What do you wish you’d taken more of in college?”
Almost without exception, they answer, “Writing.”
One of them said, “I do more writing at Google now than I did when I was in college.”
I am therefore begging, begging you to listen to @stephstephking: https://mstdn.social/@stephstephking/113336270193370876
@inthehands @stephstephking I completely agree re. writing, but there are ways to teach writing without an English department. The average CS major may learn more from the "writing across the curriculum" model than from the Brönte's.
(Skin in the game: When it was smaller, I had my programming languages course designated a writing course, and a personally read and gave feedback on everything written. And boy did they need a lot.)
@shriramk @stephstephking I mean…yes, sure. (Mac also has a pretty good “writing across the curriculum” approach, with institutional support; much of my own most impactful writing training came from classes across the curriculum.)
That all seems to me a bit beside the point: the “Englishs major are useless!” crowd is making an argument about what forms of learning are useful, not which departments house them.
@shriramk @stephstephking @inthehands I don’t know that that’s true. these conversations are really about money, right? admin can still be convinced to dissolve a department (and corresponding degree programs) if they believe its main purpose is to serve other units
@chrisamaphone @shriramk @stephstephking
You do have a point there: viewing English as •primarily• a service dept for majors in other depts both threatens its funding and shortchanges the things the field does beyond teaching writing. (There’s a parallel pressure about whether math is mostly for the other sciences, or worthwhile because mathematics itself is worthwhile.)