Last semester I made the near-fatal mistake that many young Hamilton college students make in their course selection. I decided to take two writing intensive courses at the same time, thinking I could just get that requirement out of the way faster. Sure, it would probably be a hellish semester, but at least then I wouldn’t have to worry about it anymore, right? Unfortunately, like many other Hamilton students, I had a false understanding of how the writing intensive requirement works. As it turns out, only one writing intensive course per semester can count towards the requirement. So basically, I put myself through an awful semester for absolutely no reason. When I asked my advisor why Hamilton has this policy, she said that Hamilton believes your writing skills will improve more if each class is taken during a different semester to spread out the amount of time you spend improving your writing skills. While I agree with this statement to an extent, I think that this idea is based on a false concept of writing intensive courses. And, given the way writing intensive courses are actually structured at Hamilton, more than one should count per semester.
The fundamental issue with writing intensive courses is that they are arbitrarily labeled as writing intensive. Of the three writing intensive courses I have taken, one only required that I write two papers over the entire semester and the other two classes each had five papers. That’s over twice as much writing and yet all three courses are considered writing intensive. Additionally, of the two classes that each had five papers, the standards of writing were drastically different. That, in culmination with the fact that each professor had their own unique rewrite rules, made for three very different writing intensive experiences that varied greatly in difficulty.
If each of these classes varies so significantly in difficulty, how can Hamilton assume that I will improve my writing by a standardized amount each semester? Does it really have to do with time or is it more about the effort required by the class? Essentially, if my writing can improve significantly more or less depending on the difficulty of the class, i.e., how many papers the class assigns and the standards to which they are upheld, can it not vary in improvement based on how many writing intensive courses I take at once? I believe it absolutely can. The semester that I took two courses at once I noticed my writing skills improved tremendously. This could either be a result of the fact that the classes were each harder than my first semester writing intensive, or it could be because I took them at the same time. I think both arguments are valid and they both disprove the idea that time is a main factor in writing skills improvement. Therefore, more than one writing intensive course should count per semester.
This argument is not to say that Hamilton’s writing intensive courses are not effective or a great educational idea. I have learned a lot from every writing intensive course I have taken and really enjoyed each one. However, I think I have learned just as much in the three courses I have already taken as I would have if I had taken one per semester.