Writing in the Accounting Major

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As of now, I’ve taken five business classes and each one of them has been the same. The writing is minimal, yet when the writing is assigned, the professors do not help students with the basics of business writing. Students are expected to understand what good business writing is, and when the writing does not live up to the expectations, the professors simply comment that the piece does not constitute good business writing. No one bothers to try and help students become better business writers. For the students, writing quickly becomes trial and error. Either a student gets it or they have to keep trying until they miraculously get it (or they never get it, which is a real shame). Now, I’m not blaming the professors (let’s see if this attitude changes post final exams). The professors focus on what they’re supposed to teach, which is good. That’s not the problem. The problem is that none of the professors are supposed to teach good business writing. Arguably, this is not a problem for the University of Denver to address. With so many different disciplines within business, it is almost impossible to teach a writing course for each of them. Besides, how is it the business school’s problem if students have never been taught good writing? Isn’t that the job of English departments and K-12 education? I’m not an expert on the writing of Daniels College of Business graduates, but I do know that, across business schools as a whole, graduates are unprepared for the workforce. Sure, they can create reports with few errors and create really fancy graphics, and yes they might understand their material and subject matter, but how does this help if they cannot express their ideas in writing? How can they persuade anyone to do anything if other people cannot understand the graduates’ writing?


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