Many people now believe that writing skills have declined in America. 1. Explain why you agree or why you disagree with that statement. 2. Give at least one example to support your view. 3. Provide suggestions for what can be done to improve writing (if you agree with the statement) or suggestions for what can be done to continue the situation (if you believe writing skills are satisfactory in America).
Note that this week’s assignment as well as those to follow will be worth a maximum of ten points: up to five points for appropriate and respectful responses that fully address the issue and up to five points for grammatical and error-free writing.
Opportunity for one bonus point: look at the Blog Evaluation Criteria in Course Information on Blackboard. Can you find the error? If so, send me an email and tell me what it is. By the way, the error wasn’t intentional. I found it when I was looking at the document to write the paragraph above. It goes to show you can never proofread too much!
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I have a ten year old daughter, and when I sit down with her and try to help her on many of her assignments, I have noticed that what I learned at her age is no where near what she is learning. In third grade she learned how to spell photosynthesis, now without spell check I would have messed that up. I do believe that “we” as a society have become lazy in our written language, but the youth are learning more than my generation did.
Just the other day, my sister, who as a daughter the same age as mine, asked me if my daughter is learning cursive writing, I said yes. My sister, who is seven years older, had never heard the word cursive before, in her day it was just writing and printing. I believe our youth are making big advances in the written language, but it will be up to them to continue the progression of the written, English language.
I agree that writing skills have declined. There are the obvious reasons: cell phone text and e-mail abbreviations, but I also think that it goes much further than that. When President Bush signed the "No Child Left Behind Act", I believe it didn't do what it was intended to do. One example; my best friend's son. His report card was all D's and F's from seventh grade on through graduation. I still find it hard to believe that he graduated. He doesn't know how to spell, phrase, or use punctuation properly.
As for myself, I remember being very good at writing when I was in school. After twenty-five years, I realize there are things I have forgotten. I find myself wording sentences differently because I'm not sure if I should add a certain punctuation mark. There are fields of employment where people need to use correct writing skills, but if it is not used regularily, the rules of writing and punctuation tend to be forgotten. I'm not sure what can be done to improve writing skills in America, but I know that having to take this class made me take a look at the rules of writing again. I have a lot of improving to do myself.
Writing skills have declined so much that slang in many cases is the accepted way of writing. I myself am guilty of abbreviating in text and instant messaging. Just the other day I opened an email from my 16 year old daughter and literally could not understand what she was trying to say. I had to call her and ask her what the email was about. While I know teachers on the grade school level are struggling with teaching kids the proper way of spelling and writing, society as a whole has relied to much on technology to fix their errors. One way that some cell phone companies have helped is with the invention of T9Word on the text menu. It allows the user to attempt to spell a word and then a series of words (spelled properly) appears to choose from. It's a small way to get people knowing the right spelling of words so that text messages can be read by those that HATE everything abbreviated.
It seems to me that skills are going back and forth over the generations. I never had spelling past elementary school, but my sister, who is eight years younger than me, had spelling all the way through middle school.
I think they kind of let things slide with my generation (early-mid 20s), but kind of realized that that was a mistake, so picked up again for my sister's generation (current middle school-high school students). Of course, I don't know what has happened to things since then, so the "No Child Left Behind Act" could very well have messed things up again.
I agree because when I help my little brothers do their homework they are learning how to do lots of different spelling things and grammar that I didn’t even learn till high school. I need help doing some of the thing they do now. We have been getting lazier and depending on the computer to do a lot of the work for us. The way we can fix this is not to depend on computers as much as we do. We could go back to the typewriter, where it didn’t do all of the corrections like the computer does. We have to be thankful that we have a machine that is making are life’s easier and we should take that for granted.
I feel that overall people’s sense of writing has increased, and thus you see what was taught to us being taught to a younger generation at an earlier age. Also with the advancements in technology, this has allowed us to work smarter not harder, by eliminating the process of spell checking and grammar checking manually; it allows us the ability to put more thought and time into the actual writings depth. Though some people may not see the same points I do, because they use past definitions of what good writing is. To maintain this track we would need to continue the advancement in technology and continue stressing the quality of thought and not the quality of manual mechanics.
I agree that there is a decline in America’s writing skills and I feel it is because of modern technologies. Simply writing this entry in Microsoft Word will catch any misspellings or punctuation errors that I may not have caught if I were writing it manually. Spell check is a wonderful program, but I no longer have to be that concerned with knowing how to spell. This sounds like a great time-saver as long as my computer doesn’t freeze up. I disagree with Ram’s entry. I do not believe that these technologies are giving us more time to focus on the content, but allowing us to not be concerned with knowing how to spell and properly punctuate our work. We should know how to spell before we begin writing properly. The only suggestion I have is to continue learning and growing every day of our lives without relying on modern technology. I have only been in this class a few short weeks, but have already picked up some lessons that will greatly improve my own writing ability.
I think that overall the writing skills in America have decreased. Back in the day, there wasn’t any spell check and what not. Today in word we have so many to tools to hopefully ensure that we don’t have any errors. There’s also the issue with text messaging and abbreviating words. I myself am guilty or abbreviating and using different slang words. I try not to use slang when I am writing but it has become so common and sometimes acceptable that you don’t always catch yourself. I also have a few younger siblings. My youngest sister Antonia is in third grade and I was helping her with her spelling homework the other day. I remember when I was that age the words were more difficult. We just have so many tools today that are supposed to help us with our writing but I think that they are making us lazier. I think that when learning to write you need to go back and not use as many of the tools that we have today just so you know the correct way of writing. I also believe that classes such as this one or any writing class can really help people to become better writers because you have to write with what it acceptable. You can’t use slang and abbreviations; you are learning the correct way to write.
I strongly agree that writing skills have declined a vast amount from previous times. Although, there may be more education available than previous times, I don’t think much emphasis is put on speaking or writing eloquently. I feel that America as a whole has become lazier when it comes to writing. America is so concerned about time that we have managed to use less words with more than two syllables. Also, with the internet and communication forms such as texting and email we use a large amount of short hand and acronyms. If you pick up a book such as Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, you will see how much our language has changed over the years. Quite honestly, I think that the writing we used in the past surpasses our language a great deal compared to present times. I feel that we do not sound as intelligent as we once did. It seems as though our vocabulary has been declining rapidly, especially with the new advancements made in technology. I think that it’s pertinent to increase your vocabulary and read on a regular basis. Reading a variety of books will not only assist in increasing your vocabulary, but also your knowledge.
I agree totally that writing in general has declined. I believe it started with e-mail and has sky rockected with text messaging! You can say whole phrases in three to five letters. TTYL means talk to you later, OIC means Oh I see, WE simply means whatever. This was very confusing when I first began texting my children, however, I am starting to catch on.
I do believe that writing skills have declined in America. Now that everything has become so technologically advanced, many people rely on their computer to solve misspelled words and grammar errors. Before there were computers, communication relied on letters being hand written and sent in the mail. Right now I am writing this response on Microsoft Word to make sure I do not have any errors. Education is important if one wants to be a proficient writer. Writing with a pencil on paper would make you pay attention to what you are writing, and while doing so you would develop an understanding of writing structure.
I do agree with the statement. Because of the increasing technology of word that atomatically correct grammar mistake, people rely of the application to do their mistake for them and totally ignore why it is correct in a certain way. We learn how to write since childhood. Throughout our life we will continue to learn as we get older. I believe that in order for us to know more about it is to practice, practice, and practice. There is a saying that “practice makes perfect” .
I believe that writing skills in America are horrible. I think that most of the problems start in our early years of school. Writing skills should be stressed through out elementary, middle, and high school. I think that because of all of the techology these days, basic writing skills have been over looked.
To improve writing skills in America, some major steps need to be taken. My personal opinion is, kids shouldn't be introduced to computers until later in their life. Younger kids need to do everything hand written until at the earliest middle school. Will this happen? Probably not, but I that would be the best way to improve writing skills in my mind.
Yes, I agree with initial post. I took an entry-level college composition course a year and a half ago at the University of Wisconsin Stout. I was astonished to discover the lack of basic writing skills amongst my peers. Not only was their punctuation and grammar lacking, but their ability to compose well thought out sentences and paragraphs was surprisingly poor, as well. It is hard to say whether or not writing skills have truly declined in America, because I have only taken notice of the general public’s writing abilities in the last two to three years. However, I do know there is room for improvement. If there were one thing I could pin the blame for the inadequate skills of young writers on, I would say the lack of time in students and young professional’s lives. With faster paced lives, comes a lower quality of work. I believe young writers will gain the skills eventually with the massive amount of emailing and texting that takes place in an average day; however, I believe this medium (internet) will encourage and eventually bring about a different standard of writing skills. It may be less grammar and punctuation conscious, but it will accomplish the same things that writing has always accomplished.
I believe that our writing skilld have declined over the years. For example with the use of modern technology we no longer have to worry about our spelling or our punctuation because we have spell check and grammer check. I believe that we should have the basics of English and spelling taught to our children not only in elementary school but also through their high school years because as we have all demonstrated in class even though we are in college we still don't have a complete grasp on the English language yet.
I agree that writing skills have declined. There is not as much emphasis on writing skills and slang is being used a lot more. One example would be me. I do not always pay attention to grammer and punctuation when I am writing. I depend on spellcheck to much.
One way to fix this problem would be to expand the writing classes in schools and to put more emphasis on spelling, grammer, and punctuation.
I completely agree that writing skills have declined in America. I believe that the main reason for this is because of the advancement in technology. I myself have been very slow to embrace technology. However, it has basically become a requirement for almost everything now. A couple examples would be jobs and school. In addition, personal communication has reached depths I never thought would be possible. Although I was slow to embrace technology, I realize that I rely on it a lot. I am constantly texting people and using the computer with its tools to do my school work. Since this change, it seems that I have become rusty in my writing skills and hope to sharpen them with this class. Sometimes I forget to spell words that used to be second nature, whereas now I have to think about it given the laziness created by computers and texting. It's sad to say but I think my writing skills have declined since middle school and high school. Hence, I believe that schools should focus on the importance of English and writing right away when children begin in school, and focus on these principles throughout the course of their education. The education should be taught by developing skills the old-fashioned way, and then proceed to its use as related to technology. We need to begin with an exceptionally strong base.
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