Greater Discipline

Make no mistake, good writing does not come easy. As someone who does a lot of it and who I readily admit am not the most naturally talented person when it comes to putting pen to paper, I can personally attest to the reality that every sentence is a challenge. Sure, every so often I will knock out several coherent sentences in a row - perhaps even a paragraph or two - without having to go back and rewrite any of it. But that is rare for me and, I suspect, others as well. Sustained proper word choice is important simply because all of us are so dependent upon it. Not one day passes when we are not called upon to read something. They could be instructions from a manual, directions to a restaurant or the news on the Internet.      

Presently, I teach several writing classes to a number of students who are looking to eventually gain employment in public relations or the communication industry. Feedback I have received from a number of persons who currently work in that profession and who are in positions to hire students like the ones I teach. They are eager to meet up-and-comers and even hire as many as they can. However, their concern is that these prospective hires do not write as well as they should, particularly for persons who either have graduated or are about to graduate from college. That means people like me and the students we teach have our work cut out for us.   

Working with my current crop of students, I am struck at how innately talented so many of them are when it comes to writing. They show flare, sparks of creativity, and keen insight into how topics should be showcased. This, of course, is all good. But what many of them are not showing is the one ingredient that is as necessary to good writing as any: discipline. Far too many times they seem to race through a writing assignment without taking the needed time to properly clean up awkward word choices or grammatical errors. Consequently, their work is not as strong as it could or should be. I am convinced that instilling within them a deeper commitment to writing is as important to helping them become better writers than is the actual writing.