I’ve been in this business longer than I want to admit. One thing I’ve learned is that language is a living, changing thing. My two children, in their early twenties, are perfect living laboratories of language changing right before my eyes. On the other hand, they did grow up with writers as parents. They have some very strong opinions about the way language should be used. My guest blogger today is my son Edward. Read and learn!
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Growing up with two writers for parents, it’s easy for me to break away from the lax approach to language shared by most of my peers and claim that rigorous adherence to the rules of our language is still important. Remnants of the X-tremez of the 90s and the modern trend of “txt tlk” has given many the impression that those of my generation care little for the rules and flow of writing in comparison to the message and intent of what’s being said. Billboards and book titles alike throw out vowels as if they were yesterday’s news, to be discarded in order to identify with a generation who has no time to type every letter. But while I cannot speak for the marketing appeal of a single catchphrase or title, this doesn’t mean that you should be lax on the language in the body of a work.
If it is the meaning at the core of a message that has the focus in the modern world, then a proper control of language has never been more important. Every word must be carefully chosen to convey the correct intent. Sure, your thesaurus may list “big” and “gargantuan” as synonyms, but each one carries different implications. It is important to pay attention not only to what the words mean to you, but what they could mean to your reader. If you want to convey your meaning perfectly, choosing between synonyms can be one of the most important tasks in writing a piece.
As for grammar and spelling, that too is more important than it seems at first. While messages between friends or in casual conversation are frequently hammered out with little regard for errors or structure and seen as perfectly acceptable, a single typo coming from an advertisement or story or business contact can put a crack in the credibility of the writer. A run-on sentence is seen by most—consciously or not—as unprofessional or sloppy. And these views will be projected beyond the piece itself and onto the writer; the same person who will send a Facebook message or a text written as “omg were r u?” will still think less of a business that forgets to capitalize a word or leaves out punctuation.
It’s true that society today has moved a long way from writing personal, hand-penned formal letters. In today’s world it’s much easier to send a quick message without regard for rules and word choice, but when communicating in a professional environment it has never been more important. You always want to present yourself in the most capable way possible. While I may be alone in my age group when I spend the time to hunt down an apostrophe when sending a text message, people of any age and any background will appreciate the high level of professionalism shown in a well-written piece of work.
Edward Timothy Moore
