Think writing is only important for folks going into English? Think again.
An increasing number of professors in the sciences are realizing the importance of teaching budding biologists, physicists, and chemists how to write. According to a recent article in The Atlantic, “Science requires an increasingly large amount of writing, whether researchers do it through articles for the popular media or grant proposals and research papers. Given the highly technical subject matter, scientists need special guidance when it comes to writing for a non-expert audience…
“Even though most of their efforts may seem to be concentrated in the lab, scientists spend a lot of time writing. “Scientists need to know how to write to get their work published and get grants—it’s an important skill that people assume they already have [once they reach a certain level], so no one ever teaches them how to write well in these specific formats,” said Kristin Sainani, a health policy professor at Stanford University who teaches both undergraduate and online courses about writing in the sciences.
So what do you think? Is it important to learn to write in your specific discipline?