CMI in Writing

Who will be the lucky 1500 students?

From: The Straits Times, 31 Oct 2011
Writing classes a must for NUS freshmen
Boosting communication skills will give graduates an edge, says provost
By Leow Si Wan


Students who are unable to articulate their ideas clearly and who do not make eye contact during presentations are among those that National University of Singapore (NUS) provost Tan Eng Chye has come across.


To lick these problems, the university is introducing compulsory writing modules for about 1,500 freshmen from August next year.


Professor Tan told The Straits Times that this initiative aims to give its graduates an edge over others. For a start, the pilot will involve about a quarter of first-year students. NUS accepts about 6,500 freshmen each year.


These students will come from either a big faculty or from several smaller faculties. Eventually, all freshmen will be expected to take the modules.


- From August next year, about 1,500 freshmen - about one-quarter of all first-year students - will be required to take the writing classes.


- The writing modules will have themes such as press freedom, information and technology, or the environment.


- Students will learn a range of skills, from how to give effective presentations and take good notes, to how to analyse texts and construct coherent arguments.

---

Hmm doesn't NUS have writing courses already? That was what I thought when I saw the article.

Freshmen are required to take QET (unless they scored good grades in GP) upon admission. Should they fail to make the mark, they would need to take additional English modules. Even though I was waived from QET, I still had to take a writing and critique module during my first year. This is a requirement from Engin Faculty.

I'm not so sure if the other faculties have such language/writing based modules. But it seems that NUS has been trying to 'secure' our English standards all along. Apparently this isn't enough, as judged by the provost.

Even junior colleges have GP, and one of its main aims is to prepare students for university writing demands. (Whether GP is useful or not, is another issue though.) Now that NUS is introducing such classes, doesn't it feel a little late? They should have introduced this long ago.

That's from an objective point of view. Personally, I'm still very much reluctant in taking writing modules, tackling with written reports and such. I wouldn't want to get chosen, if I were a freshman haha. How are they selecting the 'lucky few' anyway? By QET? They should prioritize PRCs hehe.

Maybe our English standards have dropped over the years. That explains the need now and not in the past.

Probably the recent emphasis on language standards and communication skills has led the school to realise how poor our English is.

Is SG facing a language crisis now? We are neither here nor there.