The Quotation Marks Exercise
I don’t write as well as I would like. In part, it is because I don’t fully grasp how to use the tools available to me. For example, I don’t deeply and fully understand how to use quotation marks. I can limp along but I’m not a true expert.
I work with some really smart people. A few of them are brilliant. However, many of these people, primarily geeks, are very poor writers. I’ve been shocked at how poorly they write. Their command of the written language is frightening. Then again, I almost always understand what they are saying. They communicate well but they don’t write well.
So, how important is good writing? If I can understand you properly do you really need to be able to write well? By the way, I understand that proper writing often yields better communication. Is there something more to the picture?
April 23rd, 2005 at 7:43 pm
I really can’t think of anything more important than the ability to write well, and I wouldn’t ever hire someone who couldn’t write well. I don’t care how well they can design or code. Someone may have brilliant design ideas, but if they can’t communicate them in written form, those ideas are worthless. We live in an information age, where shared information is predominantly written. Until audio can be processed and shared as effectively as written language - which will not happen for a long time - there is no substitute for good writing.
Coincidentally, Signal vs. Noise recently posted a related hiring tip: “If you are trying to decide between a few people to fill your position, always hire the better writer.”
April 24th, 2005 at 11:43 am
Many people seem to think that if you want to write informally, you must write as you speak, but this isn’t true at all. You can write in a casual, informal tone without having to precisely mimic the pattern of speaking. Writing well is a skill that takes time and practice. You don’t need any ‘tools’, least of all a computer to write - a simple pad of paper and pen will suffice.
If you want to improve your writing, you must try and read more as well (and read widely). But try and limit what you read on the computer (particularly blogs) - what you find online won’t match the breadth and quality of writing you’ll find at your local library (yes, really!).
I found the quality of my writing plummeted as I began to spend more time online. What’s more, my appreciation of good quality writing became severely blunted by reading reams of poorly-written blogs (by poorly-written, I refer to the overwhelming majority of blogs - including a large number of well-known and popular ones).
Every teacher tells their students that if they wish to improve their writing they should read often, read widely, and to practice their writing regularly - it’s hardly a revelatory observation, but it’s sound, simple advice that holds true today as it probably did a hundred years go.