This week, I started reading an interesting book on improving our writing skills. In his book, “On Writing Well,” author William Zinsser walks us through the complexities of writing. Similar to cooking, another relatively complex task, we all write and cook every day, yet not everyone is good at it. The only difference is that you don’t learn to cook in school. Writing – you do. Even in the first grade, you master the ABCs and learn how to spell many words. The problem is that for many of us, learning new writing skills ceases just a few years after.
Here is an interesting fact published by “ProLiteracy Worldwide,” an international nonprofit organization that supports literacy programs: “36 million adults in the U.S. don’t have basic reading, writing, and math skills above a third-grade level.” The downtrend in writing skills is surprising given the amount of time, energy, and money spent by our educational institutions.
Why don’t we write well?
No one said schools are perfect. They don’t fully prepare you for life. There’s nothing in the curriculum about building relationships or basic financial knowledge, but writing is included. Maybe the problem is that school writing is limited to only one area. Contrary to math, where you are required to implement its foundations in algebra, geometry, and calculus, when it comes to writing, it’s only essays and book reports.
And then there is the elephant in the room. An elephant called ChatGPT, which signals the arrival of new technologies aimed at writing for us and impacting our naïve writing skills. We have apps that correct our grammar, smartphones that translate our vocal dictations into readable messages, and artificial intelligence programs that do it all. Slowly but surely, we are losing our ability to write, think, and create, or as Zinsser describes it:
“Nobody told all the new computer writers that the essence of writing is rewriting. Just because they’re writing fluently doesn’t mean they’re writing well.”
William Zinsser, On writing well
Where do we go from here? Ban phones from schools? Regulate tech companies? I’m not sure. However, I think we can all agree that we need an immediate action plan before it is too late.
