Test time


CMU's journalism department is doing the right thing by attempting to implement a mandatory entrance exam as a prerequisite for students to enroll in its basic writing course.

The department announced last week it plans to implement the exam and construct a remedial grammar course to help a perceived problem that too many college journalism students are graduating without a grasp of simple grammar.

While it may take a few years to actually institute the changes, the department is right to address the problem.

Graduating journalism students who aren't sure how to construct a sentence pretty much defeats the purpose of teaching them journalism.

Journalism is much more than reporting the news, taking some pictures or developing advertisements. Every day people critique a newspaper or publication harshly, and they are sure to report misspellings and factual errors.

The only way to cut down on those mistakes is to make sure students are educated, not only in journalism, but also in grammar.

The exam is the best way to do that. Some students might be discouraged if they have to pass a test before they can begin their journalism careers. But the way this editorial board sees it, if they can't write, they don't belong in journalism.

Of course, that's what the remedial course would be designed for - to help the students learn the grammar needed to pass the test.

All in all, this is a great idea.

Losing a few students is a small price to pay for accuracy.

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