Educated people can’t write
For those of you who may have been following my opinions for the last couple of semesters, you probably got the impression that I’m a rather pompous, condescending and arrogant ass.
For those who thought exactly that, you’re right.
Well, today I’m here to add on to that “assness” by taking a few shots at some of my scholastic peers and workmates.
My complaint: People—even college-educated people—do not know how to write!
What started as a pet peeve of mine while I was in college, slowly morphed into an annoyance when I began working for The Ranger News, and now is just a full-blown outrage since I’ve been in the workforce. The Ranger News itself has received considerable criticism for the quality of its published articles—which have been well-deserved in my opinion—but that doesn’t even scratch the surface of some of the articles that have crossed editors’ desks that never even made it into print. While I was an editor for the paper, I would literally spend hours trying to rework articles just to make the sentences coherent, let alone say anything substantive. It was beyond ridiculous that what I saw was from college students. I can only imagine what some of the professors on campus have to deal with.
Now that I am employed in the community, I again have been confronted with instances of poor writing. I have seen important documents printed on agency letterhead contain numerous spelling and grammatical mistakes. Again, the sources of these mistakes are college-educated people.
I can’t believe so many people are bad at putting words and sentences together.
Writing is an extension of language; and language is the formalization of communication. Society, as a social apparatus, depends on the ability of its members to communicate clearly and effectively in order for the society to function optimally. Without the ability to communicate effectively, how are we to understand each other? Ask any relationship guru and they are most likely going to tell you that the key to any healthy relationship is communication. Society as a whole is one big relationship, so communication skills are just as crucial en masse.
Unfortunately though, my observations have suggested to me that many of my peers and coworkers are sorely lacking in writing skills. Maybe this factor relates to why society suffers from so many ills.
More than that though, the ability to articulate one’s self clearly and concisely is an exercise in intelligence. Many theories of intelligence postulate that verbal skills are an indicator of one’s overall level of intelligence. Therefore, the more command individuals have over language, the higher their level of intelligence is likely to become.
Yet, I observe that plenty of college students and college grads can barely write a paragraph without a spelling, punctuation or grammatical error. And this is with the advent of word processors equipped with spell-check and grammar-check software, mind you.
We’re talking college-age people and older lacking a command of their native language here. We’re talking adults. Presumably, these adults have graduated from high school, middle school and grade school—each of which ought to have taught writing skills. Somewhere, something has failed miserably.
I could launch into theories about why people don’t know how to write; I could rail against technologies like television, cell phones and text/instant messaging (as I’ve done in previous opinions); I could assert that people don’t read enough anymore or engage each other in meaningful conversations; but instead I’m just here to complain. I don’t really care why it so happens that few people seem to grasp the fundamentals of language; I’m just pissed that they don’t. And, since I’m a pompous ass, I’m going to stand here and preach how much others don’t know how to write while asserting that I do. Anyone who doesn’t like it can bitch to me in writing via my email above.