Every college and university in the United States has a set of writing requirements for its students that need to be fulfilled within four years. For most students at Washington University, College Writing 1 is the class that fills this obligation. A course designed to prepare students for future writing-intensive courses and research, the premise of the course is valid in theory. However, in practice, College Writing 1 has become a pariah of subjective grading scales and teachers with terrible reputations. As someone who has now taken the class, I would argue against the stigma and say that the class actually benefits the majority of students by giving all students valuable writing experience.

One of my favorite parts of Writing 1 has been the readings. So maybe this argument doesn’t apply to most people, but pieces like “Against School” by John Gatto and “Consider the Lobster” by David Foster Wallace provide a provocative basis for class discussion and have actual educational value. That sounds vague, but as an interdisciplinary student, I can actually use these pieces for other classes and talk to my peers about controversial and interesting subjects. In that sense, the curriculum of Writing 1 is actually useful to my development as a critical student.

Over the past few months, I’ve learned about the problems of being bilingual in the educational system and that Google may potentially be making us stupid. I’m not claiming that “So What?” and “Who Says?” are useful—in fact, I’ve barely done more than skim those readings. I also had qualms with reading an entire book in a week, but regardless, I would still argue that the readings in the class actually can have an impact on students.

Writing 1 has been my smallest freshman class—I know every person in our group, and we get along well with our professor. Certainly, the experience in Writing 1 varies with the abilities of each teacher, but I firmly believe that there’s a social value to Writing 1. I barely knew anyone at the start of the class, but I will leave the year with a new set of people I can say “hi” to on campus and with whom I can have meaningful conversations.

Yes, you could argue that this could be accomplished with a large set of freshman seminars or a required writing-intensive course, but it’s a tangible benefit of Writing 1 that makes the class a wholesome experience for students. And, as an added bonus, you’ll always have something to talk about with any Wash. U. student. We’ve all gone through it, and I’d say most—if not all—of us, have lived to tell the tale.

Finally—and this may be my most contentious point—I think the actual writing portion of Writing 1 is an effective way to introduce students to creating thoughtful arguments and learning how to do formal research on a scholarly topic. I came into Writing 1 with a very traditional “I can write, so I really don’t need this class” mentality. Leaving the class, I realize that I had a good deal to learn about formulating research questions, using library databases, properly analyzing rhetorical strategies from other writers and even learning how to write engaging personal essays.

Maybe this isn’t the case for every other student. Maybe I was lucky that my professor gave good feedback on my essays and helped me find my weaknesses as a writer. However, I think writing the same types of essays for the class creates a fundamental similarity among students. The research process is the same for everyone, and all students have access to similar resources to make their questions and resulting theses. If you come in with the right attitude to Writing 1, every student can tangibly improve their writing skills and come out of the class with more knowledge about the art of writing persuasively.

One of the great conundrums of Writing 1 is the lack of consistency with professors, and I admit that this is a great argument against the continuation of a school-wide program for introducing writing to college students. I believe there are at least small components of the program that can benefit everyone. As someone who has had a good experience in the class, I also think that there is the potential to change as a writer. Maybe my bias is too evident, but I think that the College Writing Program at Wash. U. is just fine.