Sitting in my business and technical writing class this Wednesday, my professor posed the question, “Why is communication important?”

To some this might seem like a simple question with a simple answer. However, my class was stumped. Basic answers like, “So you don’t offend people when you are speaking to them,” and, “To help you get a job,” dominated the conversation before our professor let us off the hook and explained the premise of that day’s lecture: Why being skilled in communication is extremely important.

As a current communication major and someone preparing to enter the professional world in the coming months, I have noticed more and more how important communication and writing really are when applying for jobs. 

Communication majors do not just sit around and talk about how to speak to others. The variety of classes is extremely diverse, ranging from interpersonal communication to the rhetorical triangle. Almost everything you learn is in service of any job.

After going through the job hunt process, I believe the University should mandate all students, regardless of major and college, to take a variety of basic writing and communication classes past the general education requirements. 

I believe everyone should be required to take one writing class per year. This could be beneficial because it would expose students to the transferrable skills needed in the business world.

Think back to your freshman year: Depending on which college you belong to, Rhetoric 105 or Communication 111/112 were the only mandatory writing classes we had to take, fulfilling the Composition I general education requirement. 

While these classes are very helpful for those who might not have ever learned how to formally write, from my perspective, students need more practice than just these classes in college. I believe students need to be consistently exposed to the material to become proficient in it, and taking these general classes only during freshman year is not ideal.

Coming into the University, I was a biology major before I made the switch to communication and I can attest to the fact that there is a need for writing and communication even in the more technical fields.

If every student was required to take Communication 101 and at least one writing course every year leading up to graduation, we would probably be better prepared when entering the job market. 

According to an NFI research study, 94.2 percent of participating executives claimed that communication skills and the ability to work well with others are collectively one of the most important things a prospective employee can bring to the table.

It is becoming less and less about the technical skills we can offer and more about our abilities with teamwork and communicating well with others. Because of this, students at the University need to be better prepared with these skills in job interviews. Students in STEM majors are not being exposed to these skills as much because their classes focus more heavily on math and science, with the small exception of lab reports.

By making more communication courses mandatory for all students at the University, we can ensure that everyone has had a proper education on some of the most important transferrable skills employers are looking for. Having more opportunities to practice public speaking and work in groups are just a few of the opportunities communication classes present. 

Whether everybody takes these classes seriously and learns from them is up to the individual student, but those who are open to learning would likely get a lot out of the courses.

Just last semester, I had the privilege of taking business communication in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and I can confidently say it was one of the most beneficial classes I have taken in my four years at the University. It urged students to challenge their own skills in writing and communication in preparation for the real world.

This is a class that could do well as a campus-wide requirement.

It is likely that very few students know enough about universally helpful classes like business communication, so they probably wouldn’t elect to take them unless they are mandatory. 

Classes like this are the reason I believe every University student should be forced to better their communication skills by stepping out of their comfort zones and delving into communication coursework. 

The point of getting an education is to prepare us for the professional world, and we can’t be fully prepared without learning about what employers are truly looking for.

As the cliche goes, communication is key and, in the case of job preparedness, it truly is.

Rebecca is a senior in LAS. She can be reached at [email protected].