Abstract
This essay is a review and analysis of the article “The Fine Art of Getting It Down on Paper, Fast”, written by journalist and writer Brent Staples for the New York Times in 2005. The author is discussed here inasmuch as his ideas on the inability of professionals to produce a clear and direct piece of writing. The main idea behind the article is that the educational system does not provide the needed instruction on the matter, which is agreed upon and further evaluated as in what the solutions are and how long it might take to implement them.
Keywords: article review, education, writing.
Communicating is the act of casting a series of cues in order to transmit a message. This can be done through voice, hand signals, letters or any other means established by a group of living beings. Effective communication, in the other hand, can only be achieved by following certain rules which are applicable within a desired group; if it is intended to be universal, as most of the professional interchanges are, it must comprehend the broadest standards so any given person to a minimum extent will be able to capture the information.
In an article written to the New York Time in 2005, editorial writer Brent Staples remind us the fact that a large number of executives in American companies are not entirely able to produce their reports in an intelligible manner. According to him, in regard to a study made by the National Commission on Writing, some companies reported that “only one-third or fewer of their employees knew how to write clearly and concisely”. It means that not only the intelligence over important facts in a company might get astray by miscommunication, but also that this company can, and so will the economy as a consequence, work much more efficiently if workers are able to express themselves with fluency.
This, however, is not an issue to be resolved only after its realisation. There has to be prevention, and it comes in form of early education. Children need to finish their studies already in condition to elaborate cohesive sentences. Writing is a skill that never ceases to develop, and the sooner one learns how to put words together in an order that makes sense to most of the people the better communicator he or she will be when achieving adulthood.
Staples mentions the difficulty in implementing this kind of training in basic education. “Persuading schools to improve math and reading instruction has proved difficult,” says he on mentioning the No Child Left Behind Education Act. “Persuading schools to rethink the teaching of writing — those that teach it at all — is going to be a lot harder.” Harder, but not impossible. In raising awareness within the population on the necessity of possessing good writing skills change begins to happen. People then start to realise that a good report, be it from warehouse to accountancy over products in stock or son to parents over a stroll around the corner, is one that leaves no doubt regarding the subject and content and cannot be interpreted in more than the desired and correct way.
Of course this revision of the current mindset will take years, probably decades to be implemented. When questions like the lack of ability to produce a reasonably good essay for the SAT exam arise, as it does in the aforementioned article, one might think this reform will not be possible. The author in the text reveals that some professionals do not consider this kind of test an accurate representation of the reality. “The group [of English teachers] questioned the validity of the tests and trotted out the condescending notion that requiring poor and minority students to write in standard English is unfair because of their cultural backgrounds and vernacular languages,” explains Staples. According to him, however, some of the professionals in the cited group share part of the guilt by not having the required qualification to pass on the skill.
All in all it is up to all American as a community to work together towards a better written communication. The lesson is embedded in everyday’s action, such as fomenting reading since childhood — one of the recommended techniques to develop wording skills — and the correct use of the language in every possible mean — including instant messaging and note taking. As mentioned above, writing is an ability in constant evolution within the person, and only the right environment can help this development in the right direction.
Doubling Brent Staples in his article, “what we need now is a revolution in writing instruction,” something that happens not only in class, but all the time.
Bibliography
Staples, Brent. (2005, May 15). The Fine Art Of Getting It Down On Paper, Fast. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/15/opinion/15sun4.html?ex=1273809600&en=83b7fbe01ec3dc35&ei=5088&_r=0
