I'm diving in...

The surest way to determine that I have no talent and no future as a writer is to splay my wares out for the universe to critique and criticize. So... here we go. For my first entry, while my creative juices are marinating, I want to post an essay that I composed almost 14 years ago.

In that era, Al Gore had just completed building the Internet and the speed limit was a blazing 4Mbps. To truly access the Internet, you need a whole host of equipment and special software. The RJ45 connector and the CAT5 cable were just ideas waiting to be developed; the connection of choice was a big square cube - about an inch-and-a-half on an edge. Of course this was also in the days of 5-1/4" floppies...

A forum posted the question, "Does Emily really need to read and write in 2020world? This is my reply:

I feel compelled to respond, although doing so launches me into a domain where I have little experience and a great deal of uneasiness. Yes, Emily will need to read and write in 2020world, and in my estimation, the need for those skills will be greater than her mother's today. I am a college graduate as a communications major.

In my class of 1983, the "electronic journalists" out numbered the print journalism grads easily 5 to 1. Appearance was everything and the ability to paint stories with pictures was paramount. In my classes content was more important than style; what you say, "the 5 W's," was more hotly debated than predicated nouns and dangling participles.

Three years ago, I took a position with an organization that was on the cutting edge of digital communications and networking. Electronic mail has become a staple of daily life. As I peruse the ten or twenty e-mails I receive each day and digest their content, their lack of style can often be a stumbling block to their comprehension. Some of the more glaring boners actually cause me to grimace as I read the "To:" line and realize their errors (or ignorance) have been mystically transported to the desks of all levels of the organization, and competency opinions are being formed based on the word choice and sentence construction of the author.

John Steinbeck, Ernest Hemmingway, John Grisham, Jackie Collins, Art Buchwald, Dave Barry, and Charley Stough (ever heard of BONG? Check it out on the Internet) are "wordsmiths" of stellar proportions. They, each in their own unique manner, draw us into their worlds and imaginations with words, not pictures. Electronic mail requires language skills of the same caliber. We use them to express ideas without benefit of pictures. Whether the message is a request for software assistance, directions to the location of the company picnic, a romantic proposal, or a message from the CEO, when it is in writing, it is available for a much deeper scrutiny than a video/audio recording. Word choice and sentence composition becomes so much more critical.

And, when that message exists in the electronic realm, at the touch of a key, your error-filled attempt at lucid thought can be everywhere in the ether the infamous "Green Card Lawyers" have been (One good reason why I ought to kill this creation right now). In 2020world, Emily will need to be able to construct sentences, spell words, and punctuate paragraphs like never before. Spellcheckers and "Gramitik" only go so far. Here are some actual examples:

"External E-mail is working again. Please let me know is you are still having a problem."

"I will need to take an extra 30 minutes on my Lunch break today SO i WILL BEE OUT FORM 12-1:30PM......I have to take care of some personal businesss."

Though they are benign enough errors, and the ideas they were trying to express were communicated, would you want to be the author of these messages sent through out your organization?

To close with a line from those great philosophers, Crosby Stills, and Nash: "Teach your children well, their father's health will slowly vanish." (I beg mercy on those of you with greater English skills than I, who would critique this with the sole thought of flaunting the superiority of your academic prowess. I will concede your cerebral mass probably exceeds mine.)

I welcome your comments and suggestions - and your grammatical corrections.

Scott