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Crissa Berger
Prof. Graves
LANG 120
24th October, 2016

Why Computer Science Needs Writing

When most people think of computer science, the first thing that comes to mind is
probably not writing. If you think computer science, you would more than likely think computers
and maybe literally science. Since this type of field is about computers; coding, math, and
science seem more practical than writing. This is the case for most college students when they
realize that they still have to take a writing class in their first year of college. Why would writing
even be remotely important to CSCI( CSCI is short for Computer Science)? This is the question
that a lot of college students are asking when they have to sit through countless hours in writings
classes that they are just going to forget what they have learned.
Why should college students spend hours in said classes that are going to get them
nowhere in their academic field? Maybe, since these classes are assigned, they do have some sort
of purpose? Besides the fact that they are a requirement for freshman to take for their credit
hours. As a college freshman, you probably thought the exact same thing when you saw your
schedule and saw you had a mandatory writing class. Writing? Seriously? Didnt we spend the
last four years in high school english classes learning how to do this? Hopefully this essay will
prove beneficial to you as I go through and answer your questions on how writing is actually
important to not only college as whole, but for the CSCI field as well. From researching articles

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written by CSCI teachers to interviewing a professional in the field, there is a whole lot more
writing involved in CSCI than people originally expect.
CSCI itself is a field that is surprisingly full of writing. For example, when someone is
coding something like;
String s = One Two Three Four;
String t = s+ ,;
They are not only writing, but they are also writing in a different language. If you are not

familiar with coding, you could argue that Yes, this is writing, but it is in english so how is it a
different language? I see words that I recognize! While it is true that you are able to recognize
the english language, coding itself is a completely different language. There are numerous
different types of coding languages like Java, Processing, and C++ (These are just names of
programs). Each of the above programs have their own unique functions and patterns that need to
be followed to be able to communicate to your computer. Just like when you learn how to speak
a different language in your foreign language classes, CSCI has this same principle.
While in this area of CSCI you may not be talking or writing to a literal human being,
you are communicating with a piece of machinery that needs your input to be able to
successfully output what program you are trying to create. As Brian Berger, a professional in the
IT field said in our interview You need to be able to communicate with machinery just as well
as you communicate to people that are in your daily life. Without your input, and ability to
write the proper coding, your machine will fail to result in what you are trying to produce. Yes,
first year writing classes do not actually teach you to code, but they do help you with broadening
your horizon of writing in general.

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David Russell argues that FYW (First Year Writing) classes do a poor job at teaching
students anything helpful for their intended work fields, I would have to disagree. While I have
personally been writing code in my programming class, I have mentally referred back to first
year writing with flow and making my programs in coding look a lot better aesthetically and
organize them in a better way that is easier to read. Another thing in the CSCI courses at UNCA
is that you are graded not only if the program you created works, but if said program is organized
well and is easy for your professor to read as well. If we had not learned how to incorporate flow
and organization in writing, I would not have the tools necessary in CSCI to write easy to read
programs.
CSCI in the real world you will not be able to just talk to your machine. While sitting in
front of a computer and typing all day may sound like a enjoyable job for some, there is social
interaction between your colleagues and advisors on the daily. This is also been found by
research by William Taffe, who was previously a CSCI professor at Plymouth State University.
In addition, programming language skill development or communication with machines may
crowd out the development of human-to-human communication and possibly lead computer
science students to shortchange this facet of their education. Indeed, the stereotypical "nerd" is
often portrayed as impoverished in written and oral human language skills (Taffe 18). CSCI is
not a cakewalk, so running into problems and not being able to solve them right off the bat is a
typical issue for students and workers in the field.
To better communicate to colleagues, writing in forms of emails and verbally talking is a
requirement. Thanks to learning about flow in first year writing classes, communicating to
colleagues can be done in a much more timely manner than without using flow. To get a point

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across, it is easiest to email said colleagues with writing that is easy for them to read, understand,
and find the main question that you are asking. The field of CSCI is very time oriented and the
quickest way to do something correctly is always sought after. To incorporate this into emails
would be a very good way to speed up the process of getting a question solved.
As for person to person communication, it is important to be able to do the same. You
can not sit and pause for a very long time to think of what should be said next in your
conversation in real life, but it is important to remember to get your point across quickly and
without adding unnecessary details. For example, Hey John, I can not get this program to work.
Everytime that I try to play the code I get error messages. I also need to finish this by the end of
my shift today. Although this is some sort of a description of what is going wrong, it fails to
actually produce a question. This conversation is not a proper way to communicate with
colleagues.
One way to help communicate with people in the same field is to use lingo that is familiar
in the field. Hey John, So I can not get this program that is supposed to make a boolean
function that produces a string of characters. I get an error message saying that the left hand
side of the function needs to be a variable. If you get a chance, I would really appreciate some
help with this before the end of my shift today. Although this conversation may not make any
sense to you, using the CSCI lingo is a huge time saver to get your point across faster when
asking someone in the same field questions. This use of lingo could be used in any sort of field,
whether it be psychology, chemistry, or even writing itself. Each field has its own designated
lingo, just like each computer language has its own as well.

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Contrary to previous accusations, not only do you have to be able to use proper lingo for
CSCI, you need to be able to simplify your lingo down so that your clients can understand it as
well. Since a major part of working in the CSCI field is communicating and providing feedback
to your clients, being able to simplify the computer language talk to your client is a must.
Freshman writing classes have important learning skills that help invoke proper communication
between workers and their clients. One principle that we have learned in FYW are rhetorical
summaries.
Rhetorical summaries are a very good exercise to be able to narrow down a huge article,
or in this case, an analysis of a machine to a simplified level that explains everything in a lot
shorter of a time frame than it would to just send your client the analysis report. We use
rhetorical summaries in FYW class to summarize what we have learned while reading an article.
Since this is used for summarizing lengthy articles in english, it could serve as an important tool
to help summarize and explain what is going wrong with a clients machine. I personally believe
that rhetorical summaries are a crucial piece of first year writing that can be articulated into other
fields of study, whether it be for summarizing computer reports, or summarizing any type of
data.
As previous paragraphs discuss how it is important to be able to know what you are
talking about in a professional way, it is also important to be able to simplify educational
vocabulary for clients who are not familiar in the field to understand. After interviewing Brian
Berger, who said Being able to communicate well with your clients is more important than
anything else on the job. It is essential to be able to properly communicate to your clients.
Clients are paying you to do your job well, and if you are not telling them exactly what is going

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wrong with their computer, email, etc; then you are not doing your job properly. Why should
someone pay you to go through and figure out what is wrong with their computer when you can
not even communicate with them and explain why their machine is acting up? They do not, and
they can just as easily go to someone else and get them to get their computer fixed than to
continue using your services. In the commercial industry (what college is preparing for us to
work in) the client is always right and you have to respect and please them . This is versatile
throughout any type of job that you are doing. If you become an engineer, you will need to
communicate with your client just as you would if you became a computer scientist.
Although it may not seem so at first look, writing can be expressed throughout the CSCI
field, and principles first taught in freshman writing classes do have a lasting impact in the work
force. From communicating to machines, co-workers, and clients; writing has a role in CSCI and
CSCI would not be the same without it. Through the research and interviews, I have found that
FYW actually has an impact. Thanks to professors like Taffe that urge teachers to take advantage
of writing, and to urge non-writing classes to include some sort of writing, writing is slowly
starting to be seen as an important factor in the CSCI field. Talking to professionals in the field is
also a great way to learn about the contribution of writing to CSCI, which can then be sent to
professors in both CSCI courses and FYW professors as well. If we can get people to see the
actual connection between FYW and CSCI courses, or just any intended studies classes we can
get students to see the big picture. Maybe one day, students will not head into their FYW classes
with dread on the first day of the semester, but instead they will walk out with important writing
techniques to help further themselves in the field that they end up pursuing after college.

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Works Cited

Berger, B. Writing in Computer Science (2016) (Personal Interview).

Russell, David "Activity Theory and Its Implications for Writing Instruction," from
Reconceiving Writing, Rethinking Writing Instruction, ed. Joseph Petraglia, Lawrence Erlbaum,
(1995), pp 51-77.

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Taffe, William Writing in the Computer Science Curriculum, Writing Across the Curriculum,
Vol. 1, No. 1, June 1989