Should grade 12 English be required for University programs?

When applying to Universities, almost everyone has noticed that English is a required course for most programs. This brings the question of should a University English course be mandatory to get into your program? Some may argue that English isn't necessary if you're going into a program such as music, math, or engineering, but, the course teaches you about many essential skills that could help you in the future such as oral communication, researching, and writing effectively.

Every day, you use oral communication everywhere you go whether it's in your University, job, etc. Good oral communication skills will lead people (especially students) to effectively ask questions relevant to a discussion, and also help us explain ideas to peers or other students. For instance, if you're working on a group project and you have a great idea, if you don't clearly state what that idea is, it may be useless because others will not understand and dismiss it. American author Anthony Robbins once said, "The way we communicate with others and with ourselves ultimately determines that quality of our lives." This quote relates to my example because if you are capable of properly stating your ideas, you could make a positive change in the project. Therefore, English being required is good because Universities need to make sure that students are able to effectively ask questions, and communicate their ideas so that they can succeed in assignments/activities that require them to do so.

Researching is another skill that is important when it comes to University. This is because almost every program will require you to do assignments that make you do tons of research. In most English courses in high school, the class prepares you to research productively by teaching you how to cite your findings, find proper and reliable sources, and also the importance of avoiding plagiarism. For example, if a student were not to learn these things about researching it could lead to a great risk of using false information, and/or using information that was taken from someone else that isn't yours. Since the importance of researching is extremely high, all programs at Universities should require a grade 12 English credit.

Finally, the last reason why grade 12 English should be mandatory is because a student has to be able to write effectively in order to create essays or reports that will be done in mostly every program. Suppose you were in a music program and had to write an essay about a musician, if you never learned how to properly structure an essay, and use appropriate grammar, most likely your grade on that assignment won't be high at all. Furthermore, by making grade 12 English required, students won't have to be worried about making such mistakes on an essay or any kind of writing assignment.

Overall, I believe that English is far from useless and that it should definitely be mandatory in order to get into University due to the statements I made above.