English as a Skill

From the UCLA senate definition of a university course:

A university course should set forth an integrated body of knowledge with primary emphasis on presenting principles and theories rather than on developing skills and techniques.

From the American Heritage Dictionary  definition of skill: “An art, trade, or technique particularly one requiring use of the hands or body”(347). 

The distinction is that a skill is developed over time- historically and by mistake-through drills and error finding. Rose does a great job in explaining the origins of “remedial” and it’s interesting to think how “remedial composition” is associated with dyslexia and psychology yet, as Rose points out, the modern politics of skill see composition as a tool for exploring other, deeper levels of thought and academia. A skill. A tool that can be picked up. I like playing around with this metaphor. If writing is a tool, there are so many tools for a particular purpose and then a different gauge for the purpose.  What is expected is that the student has to have academic writing, let’s say a screwdriver, as their only tool in their tool box? Hell no. Composition isn’t perfect, it’s a process we do to varying degrees and it’s different every time depending on the purpose, and for that matter it depends on the writer’s state of mind. But to see writing as a tool or a skill has its merits, its own value. Rose lays it out pretty clearly: writing is necessary for all students across virtually all fields of academia. But I its seen, maybe, as more of a parlor trick: let’s say you’re doing a parlor trick or presenting something for show and tell. What makes the trick successful is that you don’t make any mistakes; in fact, everyone is expected not to make any mistakes and have this trick at-the-ready before entering the parlor. But like any good magician, sleight of hand is a skill that is developed over time and will be much different with age; so it is with writing: “Writing seems central to the shaping and directing of certain modes of cognition, is internally involved in learning , is a means of defining the self and defining reality, is a means of representing and contextualizing information(which has enormous political as well as conceptual and archival importance), and is an activity that develops over one’s lifetime”(348).  Writing =thinking=meaning.