The Writing Morass: Redefining the Problem

Abstract

This paper suggests that in order to solve the problem of poor writing in college the problem must be redefined. The main issues in the newly de fined problem are: 1. The impasse between different factions in the univer sity concerning the nature of good writing, who should teach it, and the proper function of language; 2. the available talent for teaching writing and the university structure within which it is taught; 3. the coming crises in the ability of business to cope with the information explosion. Sug gested as a first move to redefining the problem is better communication among all those involved in teaching language, writing, and information science; only then can strategies for reversing the decline in language mastery be devised and implemented.

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References

Ira Grushow , "The Obsolescence of Words," The Chronicle of Higher Education, 18, No. 3 (March 12, 1979), 56. All subsequent references to Grushow are to this source.

Wendell Johnson , "You Can't Writing Writing," Dimensions in Communications: Readings , ed. James H. Campbell and Hal W. Hepler , 2nd ed. (California: Wadsworth Publishing Company, Inc., 1970), pp. 299-308. First published in ETC., I, No. 1 (August, 1943), 25-32.

Ibid., p. 300.

Ibid., p. 301.

Such as that used in: Jessamon Dawe and William Jackson Lord, Jr., Functional Business Communication, 2nd ed. ( Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1974).

Such as Dean S. Ellis, Management and Administrative Communication (New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc. , 1978).

Richard Ohmann , English in America: A Radical View of the Profession ( New York: Oxford University Press, 1976), p. 159.

Johnson, p. 307.

George Orwell , "Politics and the English Language," The Collected Essays, Journalism, and Letters of George Orwell, ed. Sonia Orwell and Ian Angus ( London: Secher and Warburn, 1968 ), IV, 139. First published in Horizon, April 1946.

10.

Richard L. Nolan , "Managing the Crises in Data Processing," Harvard Business Review, 57, No. 2 (March-April, 1979), 115-126; Daniel Bell , "Communications Technology—for Better or for Worse," Harvard Business Review, 57, No. 3 (May-June, 1979), 20-45.

11.

Edward T. Hall , "The Major Triad," The Silent Language, 2nd ed. (Garden City: Anchor Books , 1973). First published by Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1959.