Instructors directly responsible for improving student writing skills rely on many techniques, among them student journals, to help their charges master the rudiments of written communication. Instructors in such disciplines as political science, however, may exclude the development of written communication skills from the objectives they hope students achieve. Instead they regularly bemoan their students inability to put together two or three readily understandable sentences on any topic of concern, simultaneously condemning the high schools or English department for failing to teach students how to write.