Why is good writing necessary? To those that continuously read, write and communicate on a daily basis, the question itself is ludicrous. Of course writing is necessary. How else are you going to communicate in a world filled with memos, emails, reviews, etc. And for the legal system, documentation is everything, which means writing and good writing skills is absolutely vital. However, today’s employees, students, and professionals lack these vital and necessary skills in the most basic sense, much less good writing skills.

To be a good writer, a good communicator, you have to go beyond the basics. Most high school students can’t decipher a dangling participle to save their life. And these high school students become college students, graduate and then become professionals. For this I blame the failing education system in this country and mostly I blame the media. Once upon a time a good book was a worthy friend but now that TV has taken over, who needs a book, good or otherwise? Who needs logic puzzles or word problems when you have video games? TV is a passive, brainless act that absorbs information being given visually and orally, the same way Mao Zedong blared over the loudspeakers that communism is good for you. Reading requires focus, comprehension, analytics and a whole lot of brain matter in its active form. Reading requires you to use your brain to interpret what you are reading. And if you don’t read, how do you know what punctuation goes where? How can you write well if you can’t read? And how can you write when you can’t spell? Most high school students can’t read beyond the latest fashion trend in a magazine loaded with 8 words and 50 advertisers to go buy something. However, this ranting paragraph is not making a point.

The consequences are plain to see. You have lawyers being reprimanded by judges for typos, misspellings and an overall lack of basic reading, writing and proofreading skills. You have corporate America incapable of building a sentence or making sense most of the day. You have CEO’s making millions of dollars in a single year yet can’t string a complete sentence in grammatical order. When you allow children, a massive amount of them, WriTinG liKe tHis iN rUn oN SenTenCeS, or talking like I ain’t got a clue and condoning that type of behavior, it reinforces their belief that it’s okay to do so. These children will retain that habit and one day become somebody’s role model, or worse, some company’s CEO.

These people need to turn off the TV, even for the evening news. They can read the evening news. It may take longer than watching it on TV, but they’ll be much better off for it. When you regularly see a correct sentence, or dangling participle, over and over again, it reiterates itself in your mind to be duplicated later when you do need to write. When you read, you see the correct spellings, the correct punctuation and the correct way to do things. When you watch TV and read magazines (they sincerely condone sad grammar) you reinforce it through poor writing skills. Instead of company picnics, the professionals in corporate America need a read-a-thon in the nearest library. It’s educational, enlightening, fun and it’s for the greater good of mankind: the respect of having passed the 5th grade and retaining the skills learned there, like writing.

As for my personal opinion, well its apparent in this paper. It’s sad and it’s a waste. I didn’t grow up in this country and thereby missed out on things like poor reading or writing skills. Instead, I got stuck with AP Lit & Comp, in French, German, English and Latin. It was required to graduate to the 10th grade. There was also the semi-annual spelling bee. Did I mention the spelling bee was mandatory? Certainly it wasn’t easy, but let’s just say I’m glad I can write. And I know I can write well, whether it’s a business plan, a short thesis, personal essay or the state of the idiots in corporate America.