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Quoting Michele Davis <michele -at- krautgrrl -dot- com>:
> Since there was such a flurry of emails about this concept, I decided to
> write a little article about it. Opine away. Forgive the typo's I've
> only had one (1) TAB (and yes, Coca-Cola still makes them!) Some of this
> please take tongue and cheek!
I like the lively style of the article. However, there's a few doubts in my
mind on the subject.
First, when so much of an arts degree at university depends on writing, is it
really so surprising that many people imagine that they can write? Yes, I know
all the horror stories about the writing levels of people with advanced
degrees, and I agree that someone with a university degree may be used to
writing only in a stilted style. But the assumption seems understandable, and,
in many cases it's true: getting a degree, especially an advanced one, means
that you've had an education based on literacy.
Second, despite the wear and tear on my idealism after seven years of teaching
and some hard knocks in the business world, I can't help reasoning this way:
almost everyone, if they apply themselves, can learn to write a university
essay. I know, because I saw any number of bad or inexperienced writers learn
within a semester how to write a university essay, and some of them even went
on to grad school. Surely, then, most people can learn to write well enough to
get an article published or write a technical manual - especially when there
are so many potential markets. At the same time, I've seen a number of people
with a gift for words who haven't been able to become any sort of professional
writer. I suspect that the difference between a professional writer and an
amateur often isn't a matter of talent, but of discipline and persistence:
discipline to learn the art of writing extremely well, and persistence to get
published in the face of the endless flood of rejections that most writers have
to go through at the start of their careers. Naturally, talent has something to
do with how influential your words are, and how long they're remembered, but
it's not the only, nor even the most important thing you need to become a
writer.
Third, everyone assuming that they can write is hardly new. Writers have
laughed and complained about it for generations. For this reason, linking it to
offshoring seems a little tenuous. Possibly, there may be a chain of logic here
that needs to be made more explicitly?
--
Bruce Byfield bbyfield -at- axionet -dot- com 604-421.7177
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