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<p>Not necessarily. First, some students pick those skills up in college. However, most old-school Profs I’ve had were of the opinion that college was for the refining of writing skills to a fine edge not for the teaching of writing basics which they felt should have been covered during K-12. </p>
<p>Secondly, I’ve known of plenty of older business exec/engineer relatives, employers, and HR colleagues have bemoaned the poor writing skills of many college graduates…especially those who were STEM or business majors from schools other than top ones like Wharton or NYU-Stern. </p>
<p>In fact, this was one key reason why one former employer refused to hire undergrad b-school graduates outside of the elite tier. </p>
<p>Also, one former supervisor who was an engineering major (1978 graduate) himself recalled that so many employers have found prior engineering grads from his and other schools had severe writing skill deficiencies they wrote/called into the Engineering school deans to complain and demand curriculum changes to address those problems. It’s a factor in why his incoming class was the first at his college to be required to take more writing and non-STEM writing-intensive humanities courses than prior ones. </p>
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<p>I don’t think you can separate analytical skills and reading comprehension from writing skills. If you are deficient in either skill, your writing skills will not be up to tackling college-level work nor the requirements of many workplaces. </p>
<p>IMO, taking either out of the equation is like saying one can be a good writer without knowing the language or the underlying alphabet.</p>