Be Careful while writing

Be Careful while writing 

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The quality of your life depends upon it.

From obvious things like cover letters and proposals, to less-obvious things like text messages and emails, three things are always and unavoidably true:

  1. You are judged by the words you use, and how you use them.
  2. You are understood, or misunderstood, by the words you use and how you use them.
  3. Your ability to convey information, win others over, ask clearly and effectively for what you want, defend your decisions, explain your perspectives, share your feelings with an important person—ALL these depend on the words you choose and how you string them together into sentences and paragraphs.

The implications of these three truths reach widely and deeply, further than you can imagine right now. When you are young, your writing ability determines only a small fraction of your marks or grades at school, but that portion grows dramatically through high school (secondary school) and college until it is at least 50%. After school, you are no longer graded by an instructor on your ability to write well… life itself will “grade” you.

Your ability to respond wisely to legal demands or bureaucratic inquiries depends on your ability to write well. Your ability to coordinate a team, run a business, organize a family reunion—everything in life that does not depend 100% on face-to-face verbal communication—depends on your ability to write well.

As a writing instructor, as a business owner, as a parent and as a regular person who shares this planet with you, I plead with you: take writing seriously. It is not merely a subject at school.

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