Collegiate English Handbook - 2nd Edition

This book assumes that you want to learn how to write better. Not that you are especially cheerful about it, mind you—few people like tasks that have no clearly defined beginning and end and for which progress is so hard to measure. But in my experience, most students really do recognize the need to improve their writing skills. Their attitude is usually a kind of resigned willingness. If you have that resigned willingness, you are on solid ground. “Writing is an important skill”—you’ve heard the cliche countless times. And like so many clichés, it just happens to be true. When National Institute of Education researchers asked 4,000 college graduates what courses they would have taken in college if they had known what they know now in their careers, their number one response was writing courses. So improving your writing is an eminently practical step. The problem is that many students spend more energy yearning for it than doing it. They substitute the wish for the work.