Sunday, April 19, 2009
Week 3, Chapter 3: Improving Writing Techniques
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 examples 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).
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I believe that this all is rooted back in the fundamentals of our education system. While English is held to a higher standard than most other subjects in our schools, it has slowly began to fall into the deterioration of our language into "txting" (texting). Many times I have heard teachers bemoan, not only cell phones, but the effect texting has had on our total quality of writing. Then the question becomes with the texting lingo affecting our writing and sometimes even speaking, does that mean we are creating a new language? The answer is maybe, or maybe not. Language has always been something that is extremely flexible. It changes with every puff of the wind and most of the time the changes do not stay. This doesn't mean that we should try to force every part that doesn't fit out, but instead, welcome as a part of the future, no matter what that may be.
I agree with this statement. The main reason why I agree is because now days with text messaging being so popular, many of today's youth are used to the shortcuts that are used. Instead of saying "See you later" it is "C U l8er." Without even thinking that is what many young people write in their assignments and papers because they are so familiar with it. I believe that if more classes spent more time having their students writing this type of thing will decrease.
I believe the gap between good writing skills and poor writing skills has narrowed, but the overall skill level is still too low. From my own experience, learning proper writing techniques in high school, or earlier, was very boring and I had a hard time understanding why it was needed. To earn my technical college degree we only had one semester on technical writing which is supposed to be very direct and not have any personality. As I move farther along in my career I’ve come to realize the importance of good writing and how many people lack even the basic skills of sentence structure and punctuation. I think more emphasis is needed in the elementary schools when children are more eager to learn and it creates a better foundation for future education. By making writing classes mandatory for any type of college degree further reinforces the understanding of how important good, clear writing is in the business world. Just don’t create too many writing classes until after I have my degree.
I believe that writing skills are deteriorating in America due to advancements in technology and the ever-decreasing age of its users. I agree with the previous posts addressing cell phone use and texting. I am guilty of using shorthand to text as well. However, students in grade school are being required to use computers for their assignments and the focus is being put on how to use spell check and grammar check, instead of simply using your own skills. When I help my nieces and my cousins with their homework, they have a hard time handwriting anything because they were not taught simple grammar and word mechanics. Daily Oral Language (DOL) is even being eliminated from some curriculum!
While computer skills are very valued in this day-and-age, I believe that handwritten assignments should still be required in schools for the majority courses to teach our kids proper usage of the English language. Also, DOL should be brought back!
I agree that writing skills have declined in America. I think the main reason is because communication has become more informal. Conversations are short and more frequent with instant messaging, text messaging, and even email. I believe now days it is about the amount of information, rather than the quality of information. I think writing skills can be improved by having required writing classes in schools and colleges. I also think people who frequently write formal or important documents should take a writing refresher course every couple years. I agree with all of previous blogs I have read. They also make very good points why writing skills have declined in America.
This question brings to my mind what I read in newspapers, magazines and other publications every day. I have noticed that proofreading has become a thing of the past and spell check is taking over. I am very observant of spelling errors and find myself stopping in mid-sentence as a word is spelled incorrectly.
So I do fully agree with the statement that writing skills have declined, however I do not know what has caused the problem. Has our education slipped in this area or is technology taking over.
Dating back to around 3500 B.C., writing has been and still is one of the main points of communication knows to man. They told stories of hunting trips and major events that have changed the way they lived their lives. Now days, I believe that writing still tells us the stories of our past and present time but with a much different technique than used 5,500years ago. From that time to even 10 years ago, writing has improved due to newer, more educational opportunities. Obtaining an education is getting bigger and bigger with every year, and within that education, there are classes that help us become better, more efficiant writers. Now days, if you have excellent writing skills, you will have a much greater chance in earning that dream job or even moving up in your current company.
I agree with this statement because of the fact that most people communicate through text messaging or instant messaging. Not only has it become a problem in writing, but everyone is using a short cut to express what they want to say. They get used to taking the short cut that when they are required to write an essay so letter to someone, you can't understand anything. Sometimes teachers even get papers with mispelled words because of the fact that students forget how to spell. They don't even take the time to replace "u" with "you." In order to slove this problem or to change the current situation, teachers would probably need to spend more time students on writing skills and students should take more time to practice using their skills for when they want to write a professional letter. Even if those students succeeded and went on to college, they should take more writing classes as well.
I think that writing skills in America have declined with the advances in technology and with the way things are done these days. With having to meet deadlines and having to complete papers and documents in the shortest time possible, I believe that much of the writing is done on the basis of speed and getting straight to the point. With text messaging and instant messaging, informal messages such as these can carry over when someone writes a formal or professional essay or document. The emphasis put on writing now days gives us the sense that we do not have to create a writing assignment free of typos or run-on sentences. The best way to sharpen our writing skills would be to take more writing classes to help us write more effectively.
Writing skills haven’t declined in America. Americans made some writing forms simpler, but schools continue to teach the difficult forms. For instance; business writing isn’t wordy, or full of long misunderstood words. It’s also easier to understand. These changes modernized writing.
The writing styles from the past need to stay around though. It’s part of our culture. They are still needed for writing certain scripts and history books. Science and law use difficult writing too. Schools gave more options for students by adding new styles of writing. Americans haven’t lost anything, we’re moving forward.
I do feel that writing techniques have declined in the past years. I think that some of the problem has to deal with text messaging. I know when I am talking to my friends on instant messaging or using text messaging we abriveate a lot of words. For example instead of saying ok people just use the letter k. Half of the time I cant even understand some of the abrievations people use and it drives me crazy. With all of the new technology out there the english language is only going to get worse.
I believe that writing skills have not gotten worse they have just gone by the way side. We all still learn the basics in school. And after High School if you go in to college you will inevitable learn more. It is just easier and faster to write things the way we speak. In witch case it will not always be as formal as sometimes needed, or it may be inappropriate. In many cases people use text or IM abbreviations in every day conversations. If you do this it is fine and much faster, but not how you may want to be seen by your boss. Would you walk up to your boss in the office and say “lol” or “wtf”? I know I would not. So why would you use that in any writing you had to do? Well I think it is because it is faster and most people understand it. I like to stick to the rule of if my grandmother, who is 83, would not understand it or would be offended than I should rethink how I am going to state something.
I agree that writing skills have declined in America. I feel that the school systems do not concentrate on English writing skills as much as they used. I also believe that with all of the shorthand typing that has become availble, writing skills have been put further on the back burner. For example, emailing has become less formal, IMing and texting are more informal yet.
In order to improve writing among the younger generations I believe that school systems should put more emphasis on the writing skills. For example, with Globe University, Business writing is required for my degree which I really apprceciate because it will help me to be a professional writer.
I believe that the writing skills that we learned years ago in elementary school, has definitely declined in the more recent years. One of these reasons for this declining tend, would have to be the invention of text messaging. I don’t think that there are many young people under the age of 35 today, who don’t use text messaging on a regular daily basis. So all of the writing skills that they were once taught in school has no purpose for them now. In order to become successful in the business world today, they will have to learn these skills over again. Most young people you talk with today really do want to become rich and famous, and to be able to do this fast. The fact of the matter is though, that they will need to be able to write properly, and to be able to construct letters with a business flare to them. This is a problem for many young people today, because many of them are finding themselves having to take classes that teach them how to do these forms of writing. One way of improving this might be, to invent a writing device where you would be able to write a business letter on a cell phone and then send it that way. I ’m not sure just how this could be done, but it would force people to have to use more of those lost writing skills, if they want to be successful in business. This could be something that they would learn how to do while they are in elementary school. It would give them a chance to feel as comfortable of doing this, as it is for them to do text messaging. If they learn how to do this at an early age, then it is something that they just do on a regular basis.
I agree that writing skills have declined in America. I also believe that advancements in technology communications are the main factor for this decline. Many people, who use text messaging, instant messaging, e-mail, and other forms of internet communication, are not concerned about spelling and grammar. More often, they focus on getting their message out as fast as possible and with the least amount energy.
A few of my relatives, ages from teens to adults, have a lot of difficulty when writing a paper or report. They use texting and instant messaging on a daily basis and agree that it hinders their writing skills. It is hard to change writing styles when texting has become another language for them.
I don’t know how or what to suggest to improve writing skills in America. All I know is that writing skills are being taught in schools. It is the person’s choice whether or not to apply the skills learned.
I totally agree with the statement that writing skills have declined in America. The reason I say this is because the American language has become very lax. Instead of using words, more and more people especially are young ones are using symbols instead of words. Modern technoloy is good, but when it starts to interfer with being able to communicate on a normal basis, then I think it is time to take another look at it.
Being able to communicate verbally will always be the way of the world.
My suggestion to the issue at hand,would be to have our young people start to realize early on, how important it is to be able to communicate verbally. This should start earlier in school,as early as kindergarden.
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