The business of writing has evolved over the years from a fairly basic service involving words and paragraphs to a sophisticated skill that sometimes sees competency in language as secondary to mastery of the medium.
Technological innovation emphasizes the immediacy of the message and businesses and other organizations need to compete with every available tool. Copy must be direct, familiar and optimized for search engine results. Sometimes quality is a low priority.
Where does that leave writers who care?
By nature of their personality and skill set I’ll wager most of the old school folks decry the slippage seen today in grammatical standards and long for a time when the richness of a well-crafted sentence was honored and emulated.
I suspect we’re being swept away on the pendulum of delight any new technological period engenders. Social media marketing is exciting, challenging and ever-changing. It is also imperfect. There is still room in our world for sentences that read well and paragraphs that flow logically and I believe that when we uncritically default to technology, we fail to select for the best. Business cannot afford to make that mistake.
The opportunities social media and other internet vehicles present are magnificent and I’m happy to be along for the ride: staying competitive means get on board or get left behind. But while I’m tweeting, blogging, linking and facebooking, I’m also focusing intently on the task of writing with clarity. Sure I need to master the technology. But I still want to write like a dream and my mission is to do both while helping clients succeed.
Are language standards slipping these days? Are organizations today suffering from a lack of skill with words? As someone who cares about competitive issues in a demanding economy, do you feel language can be a "power tool" for driving results? Please let me know your thoughts in the comment section below.
