Reasons Why Writing Still Matters

It goes without saying that good writing skills will always play a critical role in any society, although lately there has been a drastic decline in this field. Students who are graduating as Valedictorian of their class today do not possess the same keen grammar skills as in the past. Today, one can even pick up the local newspaper and find numerous grammatical errors. Details matter, that’s why a public relations firm can handle these fine details.

Once upon a time, the newspaper was like a dictionary – with seemingly zero errors and the picture of proper use of grammar. Today’s magazines are no better either, spelling and grammar issues frequently slip through the cracks and make it to print. As an added blow to the age-old arte of writing, it was recently announced the cursive, will no longer be taught because it lacks useful purpose in society. But also, students of today’s generation can’t read it.

Not that there is anything wrong with it, but electronics, such as Kindle devices, have take the place of curling up in your favorite easy chair with an old fashioned classic mystery novel. This just continues the trend into instant-access and wireless communication, read: away from handwriting and editing. We are big fans of the old fashion lines of communication here at 5w public relations.

Good writing skills will always matter for many reasons, mainly that they speaks volumes about who you are. In advertising, a simple misspelled word can mean the difference in location, a person’s name, product or service – not to mention that mistakes send a poor message or, worse, no message at all. Needless to say, proper punctuation is just as important as proper spelling. When to use a colon or semi-colon the entire meaning of a phrase. Quotation marks in the right place, along with commas and apostrophes, can make the all difference in the readers’ perception.

Other serious problems in writing today  are the continuous misuse of adjectives, nouns and verbs. Slangs and shorter forms of spelling such “tho” instead of “though” have become accepted in today’s written society.

All that being said, in business, and in PR, nothing can substitute the personal touch of a handwritten card or note. While we may have all the latest technologies quite literally at our fingertips, letters remain important in business and relationships. This is not to say that we should dump email, texting and autocorrect – but rather a reminder that, sometimes, you need to go that extra mile – and handwritten notes are a good way to get your message heard.

Of course, no matter whether you are handwriting, texting, emailing, writing a press release, proper grammar and spelling remain a vital part of getting your message heard and resonating with your readers. Even in today’s fast-paced world, a moment of proof reading remains best practice.