The Lost Art of [not just] Writing Well, but Writing

I am constantly amazed and, frankly, appalled at the poor writing skills of not just [most of] the high school graduates and college-educated people, many of whom possess advanced degrees, with whom I regularly and personally interact and communicate, but in mainstream media—in print and in film—as well.

In September 2012, I wrote to Tami Reed, author of the online blog "Talking with Tami" about a poorly written article [about the Soul Train Awards] she had published.  Here is an excerpt of my e-mail to her:  "Hi Tami, kudos on your reporting and gorgeous photos.  There’s no way to soften the reality of this truth so I'll jump right in:  This article is riddled with spelling/grammatical errors.  Here are some examples:  Scarfs should be scarves; eskimo is a noun (and should be capitalized), "anymore" should be two words, designers should be designer’s (possessive) [in the context used], etc."

To her credit, Ms. Reed's response was receptive, not defensive, to the errors I pointed out:  "Thank you for your email and yes I went to an urban school where the teachers probably didnt give a damn about us and it was soo hard for me to break that habit when I went off to college.  A lot of it, is me rushing because of deadlines and I have so much to cover and do.  I have an editor for the other sites I write for but not my own.  I'm not offended and get emails here and there telling me of errors.  I like to write in my own voice on my own blog.  Thanks for emailing me!  I'm trying to do better!  I fixed the typos!  How much do you charge?"

After my e-mail to Ms. Reed, some of the errors were corrected (for example, Eskimo is now capitalized), but others (including "anymore" [which should be two words]) were not.  As of the date of this blog post (7/24/13), the word "scarfs" still appears in the article (instead of "scarves").

Ms. Reed's response brought up a couple of interesting issues.  First, it contained even more errors (see underlined words above), which I believe is due to the general feeling that one’s personal writing need not be "perfect," as opposed to when writing in more formal or professional settings.  Second, it alluded to Ms. Reed's belief that the [high school] teachers in her "urban school" didn't care about [Ms. Reed] and other students enough to teach them correct English.  This latter is harder to [personally] quantify because I [graduated from a British high school outside the U.S. at age 15 and therefore] did not attend public schools in the U.S.  I happen to believe one’s writing should be, if not "perfect," then certainly correct, in any/all settings.  I also now wonder if perhaps the problem could be, their possible truancy or inattention during English class notwithstanding, that students are not learning proper English because some/many teachers are themselves not well versed in the rules of English?

Another example of the widespread nature of the problem [of poor writing] is illustrated in this screen capture from the excellent, free, recently released iTunes Festival iPad app.  For such a short caption, it is filled with a surprising number of errors:  In the song title (Wonderful), the comma should be inside the quotation mark (not outside); the 'n has an extraneous quotation mark after it (it should only have one before the n, not after); and there’s a comma missing after the word "echoes."  The most glaring error is, of course, that the word “here” in the second sentence should be “hear.”  Needless to say, it was quite startling to see that many errors in an Apple product—evidence that not even one of the wealthiest companies in the world is immune from not only writing/grammatical errors, but from said errors making it to "print" in a published app without someone in the editorial process raising a hue and cry.  P.S.  I reported the errors to Apple (in a review of the app) on September 1, 2012.  I have reported similar [grammatical] errors to at least one other app developer, who responded within a matter of hours and, to my surprise, released an app update [correcting the error I had written to them about].  Not surprisingly, Apple has not, to date, followed suit.

In this screenshot from the DailyHoroscope iPhone app, it states in its Scorpio/Leo overview:  "A typical Scorpio and Leo combination can become the ultimate power couple."  It continues... "But only if you are both loyal and determent" [emphasis added].  Obviously, the word "determined" should have been used in place of "determent," which is not merely a misspelled word… it's not a word at all!

In the NDJ World screen shot below, the word "particularly" (instead of "particular") is [incorrectly] used in the first sentence of the article.

In a 1984 memorandum responding to a letter from David T. Willard, an elementary school superintendent in Illinois who opposed the administration’s education policies, Supreme Court Chief Justice John G. Roberts concluded that no legal issues needed to be addressed by the White House counsel’s office [where he worked at the time], but he took the opportunity to note, "The letter is very sarcastic, although Willard inadvertently proves our point about the quality of public education by incorrectly using 'affect' for 'effect.' "

As George Orwell said in his 1946 "Politics and the English Language" essay that explained [his views on] the connections between bad writing and bad thinking as well as the political consequences:  "Modern English, especially written English, is full of bad habits which spread by imitation and which can be avoided if one is willing to take the necessary trouble.  If one gets rid of these habits one can think more clearly, and to think clearly is a necessary first step toward political regeneration:  so that the fight against bad English is not frivolous and is not the exclusive concern of professional [or scholarly] writers," and "A scrupulous writer, in every sentence that he writes, will ask himself at least four questions, thus:  What am I trying to say?  What words will express it?  What image or idiom will make it clearer?  Is this image fresh enough to have an effect?  And he will probably ask himself two more:  Could I put it more shortly?  Have I said anything that is avoidably ugly?"

Apart from the need for one’s writing to be technically correct, with words correctly capitalized, hyphenated and commas and punctuation marks, etc. correctly placed, there is also the issue of words being misspelled and usage of the wrong words (e.g., its/it’s, your/you are/you’re, their/there/they're, etc.).  As another example, I recently wrote (in a Facebook comment) to Essence magazine about their [incorrect] use of the word premier (it should have been premiere in the context used).

Yet another example:  In this screen grab from the 2009 movie Precious,

“You are a wonderful young women” should be “You are a wonderful young woman.”

The National Commission on Writing, in its 2004 report, said that good writing skills are at least as important in the public sector as in private industry, and that poor writing not only befuddles citizens but also slows down the government as bureaucrats struggle with unclear instructions or have to redo poorly written work [emphasis added].

According to former U.S. senator and 2004 chair of the National Commission on Writing, Bob Kerrey, "You have to be able to write, convert an idea and turn it into words."

Also, Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, vice chairman of the National Governors Association, which conducted the survey for the Commission's 2004 report, said "It’s impossible to calculate the ultimate cost of lost productivity because people have to read things two and three times."

Another hidden cost [of poor writing] is that good ideas may never see the light of day.  "I see that all the time in writing and political speaking," Gov. Huckabee said.  “There are some really bright people who can't communicate and as a result their ideas probably aren't given the attention they deserve."

Judge Roberts agrees.  In his interview for an August 29, 2005 NY Times article [by Anne Kornblutt] (original article has been archived), he stated "your brief writing conveys not only your argument to the court, but it also conveys a sense of your credibility and the care with which you put together your case."

Another threat to good writing is the proliferation of abbreviations and acronyms that saw their origins in online chatting and instant messaging but which now occur with alarming regularity in almost all other forms of writing.  Terms like "ur" (in lieu of your, you are or you're), "OMG" (oh my God), "2" (to, too and two) and "4" (in lieu of for and four) are now, unfortunately, far too common.

In closing, this Orwell quote seems apt:  "One cannot change this all in a moment, but one can at least change one’s own habits, and from time to time one can even, if one jeers loudly enough, send some worn-out and useless phrase—some 'jackboot,' 'Achilles' heel,' 'hotbed,' 'melting pot,' 'acid test,' 'veritable inferno,' or other lump of verbal refuse—into the dustbin, where it belongs."

The question remains, however, that, typographical errors notwithstanding, if one doesn't know that one's grammar/writing is poor, how then would they know it should be changed/improved [and therefore that they are part of the (general) problem]?  They will not, and therefore the problem, sadly, seems destined to continue... unchecked■

Copyright © Luceele Smith -- September 3, 2012