The focus of a writing-intensive class is, of course, to develop your writing skills. But, what does this mean? Professors will focus on the language you use in your papers, looking not just for proper grammar but also for coherence, clarity and flow. Receiving feedback on your writing is the best way to improve it, as you can see what you do well and where you struggle. Honing these writing skills in college can pay off in the future. After all, you'll surely be typing emails to colleagues, clients and supervisors for years to come. Proper writing can expand the impact of your professional documents.
Writing classes also help students build their research skills. Because most writing classes give students topics they must investigate, students can learn how to research a topic, assess their resources and draw a conclusion. These skills can prove useful in other classes as well as in the real world. For example, a public relations specialist will have to research her client's competition and study the demographics of the area to know if the client's product or service will be successful. Developing these basic research skills can start in a writing class.
Analytical skills go hand-in-hand with research skills, and they are essential for success in a writing class. College writing classes require more than simply reiterating information from books and articles; they require students to interpret their resources and analyze them to answer a question or choose a side. Such classes challenge students' critical thinking abilities, which can help them in graduate programs such as law school or in their careers as engineers or technical writers.
Though college professors might not spend the semester going over grammar rules, students can improve their grammar through a writing class. Professors will likely point out consistent grammatical issues in a student's paper, like confusing "it's" and "its" or using a comma where a semicolon should go. Poor grammar is the mark of a novice writer, so by improving their grammar skills, students can instantly improve their writing -- and how others interpret their writing.