Why Write?
(Watch two videos!)
1)
http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/easywriter4e/#518364__592770__
2)
http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/easywriter4e/#518364__592772__
1)
http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/easywriter4e/#518364__592770__
2)
http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/easywriter4e/#518364__592772__
Why Write? One answer to this question is found in the following excerpt from the website, Letters of Note, Correspondence Deserving of a Wider Audience. If you peruse the website, you will discover several other reasons for writing: defending one's position, insulting idiots and idiotic institutions, and preventing unsightly appendectomy scars.
When copywriter Robert Pirosh landed in Hollywood in 1934, eager to become a screenwriter, he wrote and sent the following letter to all the directors, producers, and studio executives he could think of. The approach worked, and after securing three interviews he took a job as a junior writer with MGM.
Pirosh went on to write for the Marx Brothers, and in 1949 won an Academy Award for his Battleground script.
( Source: Dear Wit.)
Dear Sir:
I like words. I like fat buttery words, such as ooze, turpitude, glutinous, toady. I like solemn, angular, creaky words, such as straitlaced, cantankerous, pecunious, valedictory. I like spurious, black-is-white words, such as mortician, liquidate, tonsorial, demi-monde. I like suave "V" words, such as Svengali, svelte, bravura, verve. I like crunchy, brittle, crackly words, such as splinter, grapple, jostle, crusty. I like sullen, crabbed, scowling words, such as skulk, glower, scabby, churl. I like Oh-Heavens, my-gracious, land's-sake words, such as tricksy, tucker, genteel, horrid. I like elegant, flowery words, such as estivate, peregrinate, elysium, halcyon. I like wormy, squirmy, mealy words, such as crawl, blubber, squeal, drip. I like sniggly, chuckling words, such as cowlick, gurgle, bubble and burp.
I like the word screenwriter better than copywriter, so I decided to quit my job in a New York advertising agency and try my luck in Hollywood, but before taking the plunge I went to Europe for a year of study, contemplation and horsing around.
I have just returned and I still like words.
May I have a few with you?
Robert Pirosh
385 Madison Avenue
Room 610
New York
Eldorado 5-6024
21st-Century Literacy: Or, why teaching your kids to love reading is so important Published: Sunday, March 13, 2011 3:00 p.m. MDT By Annette Lyon, For the Deseret News
. . .
In the 1950s, 60 percent of jobs were unskilled labor. Today, unskilled labor accounts for only 20 percent of jobs. But a caveat exists. Today, almost all jobs require some level of literacy, and when the workers don't have it, entire industries suffer.
In a survey of the National Association of Manufacturers, 40 percent said they couldn't implement productivity improvements because their work force didn't have the reading, math or communication skills that upgrades would require.
The modern world requires we know how to read and write. They aren't just nice skills to own; they are vital for success.
Consider that just about every job requires some form of written communication, whether it's e-mail, reading a memo taped to a wall or (more likely) something far more involved.
I have several friends (and this includes my husband) who, at times, do more writing at work than their job description implies. This includes writing reports, proposals, memos, team messages, e-mails (to supervisors as well as team members), preparing presentations and more. Two of my friends who are lawyers spend 12-hour work days, yep, writing.
(Side note: one of those lawyers is such a good writer, he's now the go-to guy at his firm for writing briefs and reports. Pain in the neck on the one hand, but it also means his mortgage will be paid off just before his 40th birthday.)
Degrees to nowhere? As U.S. educators push for more math and science, liberal-arts getting left behind
Published: Sunday, March 13, 2011 11:03 p.m. MDT By Sara Lenz, Deseret News
. . .
Debra Humphreys, spokeswoman for the Association of American Colleges and Universities, was recently part of a focus group with people who were hiring engineers and scientists. At the meeting, she said the engineers and scientists told her colleges were doing a fine job training students in the specific science, technology, engineering or mathematics skill set, but they noticed that students were leaving college with underdeveloped "soft skills" like communication and writing.
"Whatever you do, could you please teach the engineers to write, too?" she said one member of the group asked.
She said the current focus on the science, technology, engineering and mathematics majors is "understandable" but is "too narrow and a bit dangerous."
"What we are hearing from a lot of employees is the workplace is changing so much," Humphreys said. "Many careers don't even exist yet, and the parameters of jobs are changing. If you educate them too narrowly, eventually you are going to be shortchanging them."
She said many of the skills needed in an ever-changing work environment are ones a good liberal arts student has — an understanding of a global environment, the ability to work well with a team and being able to communicate ideas well. And while the starting salary of an engineer is much higher, she said those with a liberal arts degree often catch up and sometimes surpass an engineer's salary in 10 to 15 years.