Universities are ineffective
Universities are supposed to include specific writing subjects or at least some modules. While certain better schools do, the vast majority either provide perfunctory instruction of limited value or none at all. If a school offers such courses, they will take a generic overview approach. Also, they are often compulsory; neither students nor teachers want to be there.
Some universities offer degrees in writing. At least writing students want to be there, but they’re usually disappointed. Many subjects available in writing courses are a waste of time.
Both types of class involve a course structure and its associated problems. Degrees offer a hierarchy of courses within courses, multiplying the problems affecting any course.
In writing degree courses, students learn some dry theory (probably Aristotle’s) and write essays about what authorities have said on that. Sometimes, students discuss the theory in class. However, talking about writing is not the same as learning how to write, just as talking about art is not the same as learning how to paint. Students learn by doing.
Regarding essays, many lecturers will mark down students for disagreeing with them. This was always a risk with universities. However, in recent years this problem has become extreme, as universities have changed from being places of education to places of overt indoctrination.
In fact, writing degrees are full of problems. You don’t have to take my word for it. According to prominent literary agent Noah Lukeman, speaking abut Master of Fine Arts degrees in creative writing:
Take the $35,000–$50,000 you’re going to spend on the degree, buy yourself a good laptop and printer and a bundle of paper, and go off to a cabin and write. At the end of two years, the worst that can happen is you have nothing. Less than nothing is what you’ll almost certainly have at the end of your MFA program, because, besides nothing, you’ll also have a mountain of debt.
Excerpt from:
Portable MFA in Creative Writing, by Tim Tomlinson, 2006, New York Writers Workshop.
That book is packed with scathing complaints about writing courses. Suffice to say that students are rarely satisfied, which has been my experience as well.
Next section: Universities like PhDs
Articulate Writing 