The elements that were once considered the basics of “good writing” — grammar, spelling, punctuation, capitalization, vocabulary — are no longer relevant. In the age of instant digital communication, all that’s important is getting your meaning across. That’s the new reality.
Sure. And 21st-century carpenters are free to use the sides of their hammers to frame houses. They can even use the hammer’s claw to drive nails if they want to, as long as the boards stay together.
Who cares what the finished product looks like? As long as it keeps the rain out, aesthetic considerations are unimportant, right?
If that’s true, it follows that high-definition TVs and high-fidelity audio are clearly anachronistic. In today’s fast-paced world, all we need is a rough visual outline of what’s happening on-screen, and to be able to hear the occasional bit of dialogue. Beyond that, any added clarity is pointless.
And I guess personal appearance is also something only our grandparents had time for. Clothes, hair, grooming? No one cares. Just show up. That’s all that matters.
After all, if caring about grammar, and the careful and correct use of English, is annoying and pedantic, caring about appearance, clarity and the image one projects must be kind of weird and geeky, too.
In 100 years, no one will care whether you mowed your lawn, kept your car clean or had a 60-inch 1080p television. And maybe — just maybe — no one 100 years from now will read something you wrote and wonder why you didn’t express yourself in full sentences, used nonsensical jargon and just couldn’t seem to find the right words.
Really — should your writing reasonably be expected to make sense to future generations? Or to people outside your immediate social circle?
The answer to those questions is an individual choice. But if you want your writing to explain, inspire, convince, excite and compel, you need to work with strong, solid building blocks. These rules and conventions are the boundaries within which the clarity, impact and power of your story will reach their fullest potential.
What’s even better is that once a smart, careful writer has internalized the playing field, he or she can choose to break the rules when it makes the message stronger, clearer, funnier or more interesting. (Google Mark Twain for some brilliant examples.)
Written language is a communication tool and, just like a hammer, it works best when applied accurately and directly. And just as sometimes a carpenter really does need to use the side of a hammer — carefully — when the situation calls for it, great writers can get away with going out of bounds to express something.
The fact that this only really works when it’s done deliberately goes to prove that all those rules and standards really do matter. In fact, they are crucially important.
That’s because in an age of communication overload, only the most clear, concise and authentic messages will be heard.