Formal education produces poor writers

This post started life on Facebook. I wrote the original version on 2 July 2015, and revised and expanded on it to produce this.

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Formal education is supposed to give children a foundation upon which to build lifeskills. However, it is often criticised for not fulfilling this purpose. One important lifeskill which it does not do a good job of developing is written communication.

Writing tasks in school mainly consist of essays or compositions. The way essays are graded is a big contributing factor to the production of students who cannot write for the real world. As early as primary school, students are taught to use outlandish phrases in their essays, and are lauded for doing so. They are also expected to meet a minimum word count. Although teachers say they do not rate longer essays more highly, students still strive to write reams upon reams of text as this gives them a sense of security and achievement.

Josh Bernoff, in his book Writing Without Bullshit, said: "Start with high school... You follow a rubric called the five-paragraph essay. The first paragraph is an introduction. This is followed by three paragraphs of argumentation and a paragraph of conclusion... If you write long and use big words, you'll probably do better."

He continues: "By the time your essay-writing ability has gotten you into college, you've internalized a few lessons. One is that a longer paper will probably get a better grade. You read academic writing, which is full of passive voice and jargon, and learn to imitate it to sound smart. In a survey of Stanford undergraduates, 86% admitted that they used complicated language in papers to sound more sophisticated."

The other 14% were liars, I say. I readily admit resorting to puffery in my schoolwork whenever I have an essay assignment. Now, of course, I do it less, because that tactic backfires on communications students as we are one of the rare breeds of university students who are explicitly trained to write simply, clearly, and concisely.

Writing in an impenetrable manner is all good as long as you are in academia, but most of us eventually move on. That is where we get into trouble. In the real world, writing must be easily understood by as many people as possible. It must hold people's attention so that they will read to the end. Purple prose does not achieve that. Short, snappy sentences will. Unfortunately, formal education rewards long-winded, uppity writing that will make any sane human being cringe. The method of instruction has to change, and it starts with abolishing word counts, and doing away with "zephyrs" and "azure skies".

Instead, students should be taught how to write in everyday formats like emails, opinion pieces, and social media posts. Currently this is done to a very limited extent, albeit halfheartedly and almost as an afterthought. The "email" tasks students are given are also not the type that will benefit them: who cares how you write to your Uncle Bob? It would be much more useful for students to learn the art of workplace emails, as this is what their bread and butter will look like once they leave school.

Argumentative essays should also be reworked into formats like forum letters or blog posts with a social commentary element. This will impart students with the valuable skill of writing with a serious message while remaining friendly to readers. Text that is easy to understand need not be frivolous in nature; similarly, text that discusses weighty issues need not be turgid.

Many people out there write badly, annoying their readers and damaging their own credibility. It is not their fault. Writing skills do not fall into one's lap. They must be honed, but the education system right now is not doing this well.