University Writing

Writing classes at the U have always been a dreadful experience. I have never found the subject matter to be of any interest or use to me. I think this is part of the problem with university writing requirements. Everyone must take a writing class, but there are no guidelines to which class a student should take. Why don't they focus writing classes on the students major? I think this would help them take interest in the assignments as well has helping them to ease into the discussion community that they have chosen to enter. This way they are not just thrown into a specialized discourse that they have no way of working their way into. More often than not the assignments I was asked to complete we're completely foreign to me and even with intense research I was able to write on the subject with minimal success, I was "carrying off a bluff." If we want our students to take their writing to the next level then we need to challenge them with assignments that are interesting and relevant to them.