The is also broad agreement across the faculty that clear, effective writing and speaking remain at the core of Hamilton's educational mission — as they have in one way or another since the 1830s, when Hamilton students founded The Talisman, the first U.S. college magazine to be published outside of New England, and the 1840s, when the Rev. Henry Mandeville arrived on campus to teach rhetoric and elocution and published his Elements of Reading and Oratory. Some of his successors, regardless of discipline, see the teaching of writing as one of their strongest suits. Bartle says that "working with students one-on-one with their writing" is "my real strength as a teacher."McKee makes it a point of commitment: "I take it as my personal mission to make students better writers. You can actually see the progression over the course of a semester."
With students required to take three writing-intensive courses in
order to graduate—among more than 250 such courses offered at the College—writing skills are as critical to the contemporary sciences and social sciences as they are to the humanities. "As in anything, you need to communicate your ideas clearly," says Assistant Professor of Biology Mike McCormick. "Most of my comments are geared toward economy, concise, precise writing and learning the vocabulary of science." Jones speaks similarly of chemistry. "I have very high standards for writing assignments in my laboratory courses," she says. "I have held positions in both industry and government, and know first-hand that these attributes are highly prized in these arenas."
Videras and McKee point out that communication skills are closely linked to research in their fields, economics and psychology. Judy Owens-Manley, associate director for community research at the Arthur Levitt Public Affairs Center and a lecturer in government, makes a similar case for the research carried out through the Levitt
Center. Sophisticated writing and presentation skills, they say, help
students to do precise, professional-level work as undergraduates. In turn, learning to apply quantitative methods and to collect and analyze data lead to more effective writing and presentations.
Oral presentations remain essential components of most senior projects and many other courses. And while Mason, director of the Oral Communication Center, notes that there has been a growing academic discussion about their importance and value, an emphasis on speaking "never really went away, at least among students and their parents," she says. "One of the things we have been able to establish over the past six or seven years is that oral communication is more than public speaking."
