Teaching service courses such as the first year composition courses and an introduction to literature is often a primary mission for English departments on campuses in the United States. Sometimes specific departments request specialized additional English classes such as Writing for Business, basic grammar courses, composition courses focused for specific colleges such as, on the author's campus at West Virginia State University (WVSU), English 202: Writing for the Sciences (West Virginia Catalog 132), and Media Studies 502: Graduate Research and Writing (West Virginia Catalog 165). All of these courses mentioned above are written and taught by WVSU English department faculty. Demonstrating the value of material taught in these service courses is an essential step for active learning. Students often resist instruction in service courses simply because these students do not understand the need for and the benefits of courses not in their major subjects. Instead of perceiving the benefits of courses such as a First Year/Freshmen Experience course and service course requirements for a basic foundation in, typically, math and English students often just see added costs and delays toward the day they graduate from college and begin living the lives they have imagined through all the years of their educations. In this article the author discusses the creation of the course Media Studies 502: Graduate Research and Writing and its impact on students taking the course.