Good Writing

There was an old saying that beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. That seems to be an absolute truth. Sometimes we see people together that you may wonder, how did they ever get together. For an example when you see a beautiful woman, with a man that may not have the gift of looks; one might question- how that man ended up with such a pretty wife. On the other hand, a thousand people may believe a certain person is the most beautiful person on earth, and we may find another 1,000 people that believe that same person is a monkey!

Could we say that "Good Writing," also is in the eyes of its beholders?

In today's society writing has shifted in many ways. Years ago when there were no emails, texting, facebook, twitter, and computers, handwriting mattered. Many people wrote letters, papers for school, and homework with pencils, and pens. Hand writing was an important part of good writing due to the presentation. For an example, if I hand in a paper that was well written, you may never know how well written it was if you couldn’t read what I wrote. I remember years ago teachers would make a person rewrite papers, strictly due to the presentation/ the way it looked. Not only was the hand writing an important to teachers, but before this new age writing, people cared about their own writing. A person who wrote a letter, before giving the letter away would check for mistakes. A mistake would cause a person who wrote a whole page- tare the letter up, and start all over. People took their time, and added love, time, passion when writing. When a person wrote personal letters to those far away; they waited excitedly to get a response from the recipient of their letter. It was a sense of, I hope they understood/ received what I wrote, with the right perception. Good writing was based not just on the subject, and grammar, but the way it looked (the presentation) mattered.
 Writing has shifted drastically over time, and so has the form/instruments of writing. Our history of writing shows us that clearly; from drawing picture in caves, writing on animal skin, to using Bird feathers (Quill Pens), and today’s instruments

we use computers, cell phones, scanners, but is the objective still the same. Years ago they communicated in writing to get a message across, as we also do today. The presentation was not only important, but its conventions were correct and communicatively proper. When drawing pictures, to the flowery writing some used to admire, it was important to the writer and the reader, and it all played a part of a good writing piece. In her article, Brighter Writer, Richler, Jennifer, Psychology Today (00333107, Mar/Apr2013, Vol. 46, and Issue 2) wrote, “WHEN WAS THE last time you wrote something by hand that was longer than a grocery list--or do you have an app for that, too? Handwriting is a dying art, and most of us probably don't lament its demise. But recent research suggests there's a reason to put pen to paper: It's good for the brain.”I couldn't of said it better myself. Have we traded in the old ways of communicating, for a quick fix?

  Many may say with today's texting, emails, and the social networks, we have lost the passion behind our writing. Those who ride the train of the world’s social networks love the impersonal interaction. Some would rather email, or text to avoid an in-depth conversation, and interpersonal relationships. They would rather do things quickly (The microwave generation). No one wants to sit and have a meaningful conversation, or write a long letter, because of the times we live in. Everything is fast paste. Students can barely sit in the chairs at school, let alone sit down to write anything with meaning. Now a day’s computers do everything accept the thinking (in some cases they even get everything they write off the computer). Today we don’t have to line up a type writer, or stay on the lines, but we still need to get a message across. With the computer’s today, we’re just a click away from the next new thing. While writing a paper we can look up ten other things at the same time. They have even developed a new writing genre called "Whatever I write is good." When texting, emailing, or facebooking- they use words like; smh, lol, lmao,

and foh. They go against everything they were taught in elementary school using words, like y’all, and ain’t. Some may call it a sort of shorthand, but shorthand writing is shorthand. This new writing is made up by the "as we go along fairy." In fact when receiving text from people, if you are unfamiliar with the symbols, you might not have a clue as to what the sender of the text is trying to say.  In MacArthur Graham Pitzgerald’s, “Handbook of Writing Research” Paul Prior expresses in Chapter 4- How sociocultural theory has reshaped our understanding of writing, and how we must consider the future of writing. Though opinions may differ, the question I’m left with is what makes writing good? If the person is writing to get their point across/ a message out to the intended audience they are writing, how is good writing judged? Is it based on the response of the audience, of the message in itself?

There are many people in today's society who believe everything they write is as good as gold (In their eye’s). They go on twitter and say things like, "I'm digging in my nose," and have 1.5 million retweets. Colleges Professor may not ever write anything like that on twitter, but do they follow the brainless? For an example Taylor Swift who is an American Icon by the way, has an audience of 24,634,534. Of the nearly 25 million people who follow Taylor Swift, I’m sure one of her followers is a teacher, and she may have a College Professor following too. Taylor Swift writes, “Happy. Confused. Lonely.  All at the same time,” and she has 24,634,534 followers? She also wrote, “Stuck in traffic behind myself.” That was retweeted 409k times. Who cares? 409k people cared! Even if some think that self-centered, asinine, unimportant- 409 thousand people think what she said what great. Is this form of writing that the world is snuggled up with good writing? Does anyone have a right to call another person’s writing good, or bad? Who is the judge, and to whom are we comparing our writing? Writing to one person may mean nothing, but to the next person it could be their life. In the book, “The subject of writing” 4^th Edition by Boynton/Cook Heinemann; Wendy Bishop, and James Strickland in the 21st chapter Pat Belanoff makes a point when distinguishing the difference between a writing teacher, and a literature teacher. She writes, “What we write is always partially determined by our backgrounds, our culture, our prior educational experiences, our past reading, and writing activities. But all of that is filtered through our sense of ourselves.” Some people write every day, and their writing style, ideas/logic, voice, sentence flow, and process maybe different from others. Online, in journals, typing, or with a pen; who can say the old way is wrong or right? Are there absolutes in writing? Many Professors’ and Scholar's would except a paper with the anything goes type writing as long as the voice of the Writer speaks like them. If the writer has an unfamiliar voice are they considered "bad writers, or unlearned," because they have a different

style of writing?
Writers, Professors, and the rest of society are forever writing new books; 7 ways to be a better writer; 12 steps to writing your best, but truthfully there is no absolute in writing. They seem to have the answers to make you a better writer, but are their endeavor just a scam to make money off of someone who admires writers? Is writing a gift? Are there some people that everyone in the world will say they are a good writer? Are their some people that you read their writing and wonder, "Are they insane, because what they wrote was so retarded that you can't even imagine why they wasted their time; but you don't want to hurt their feeling so you smile and lie?" Who is on the good writers committee, and by what standards do they use to judge a person’s writing? In an online article, “The 10 Best Writing Books Ever” By: Broderick, Jim, Writer (00439517, Apr2007, Vol. 120, Issue 4) - Mr. Broderick states, “And while no single book about the art of writing can claim to be the "Best" ever published.” Is that’s true for every form of writing? Good writing may very well be just like beauty- in the eyes of its beholder! Loving, learning, and growing in writing!