House of Eratosthenes has a post entitled Memo For File XVII which covers the topic of language and its use in news stories. Mark cites the old saw that one should write for a sixth grade level. I'm old enough that I was given the same advice. Sadly today's sixth graders would likely be unable to read something written to a sixth grade level from 1980something when I was in sixth grade [/old coot rant].
This advice is fine if one is writing for, say a sixth grade newspaper. Do you suppose the writers at The Economist or Forbes are given similar instructions?
It wasn't until tenth grade that I had a writing teacher that knew something about writing. I don't know if he was a good writer. I don't remember reading anything he wrote but he was a merciless editor. His one nugget of advice was to "kill your puppies" when writing. That is, if you are overly enamored of a particular turn of a phrase, it's probably overdone. I have vivid memories of the first paper I turned in. When I got it back, I could hardly read what I had written as it was awash in red ink. (Nobody was concerned with my precious self-esteem as is the rage these days). Many drafts later and oceans of red ink, I handed it in again and it was more concise, focused and certainly not written to a sixth grade level.
The teachers I had after him were also brutal with the dreaded red pen but I learned to write much gooder.
When I went to college, I was a bit intimidated because most of my classmates were from rather prestigious Main Line private highschools. I was amazed at how poorly so many of them wrote. Not just in terms of style but organization and simple grammar.
Telling students to write to a sixth grade level does them a disservice. You are imposing constraints on them that are unnecessary and probably hold them back from growing as a writer.
Regarding the leftist perspective on the function of media and advancing an agenda. Some time ago, James Lileks was pounding on the intellectual nincompoop Norm Coleman. In a revealing exchange, Coleman said the role of journalists was to "stand up for the little guy." James was surprised and said that he thought the role of journalists was to report the news. I'd wager a great many MSM journalists would agree with Coleman.
This advice is fine if one is writing for, say a sixth grade newspaper. Do you suppose the writers at The Economist or Forbes are given similar instructions?
It wasn't until tenth grade that I had a writing teacher that knew something about writing. I don't know if he was a good writer. I don't remember reading anything he wrote but he was a merciless editor. His one nugget of advice was to "kill your puppies" when writing. That is, if you are overly enamored of a particular turn of a phrase, it's probably overdone. I have vivid memories of the first paper I turned in. When I got it back, I could hardly read what I had written as it was awash in red ink. (Nobody was concerned with my precious self-esteem as is the rage these days). Many drafts later and oceans of red ink, I handed it in again and it was more concise, focused and certainly not written to a sixth grade level.
The teachers I had after him were also brutal with the dreaded red pen but I learned to write much gooder.
When I went to college, I was a bit intimidated because most of my classmates were from rather prestigious Main Line private highschools. I was amazed at how poorly so many of them wrote. Not just in terms of style but organization and simple grammar.
Telling students to write to a sixth grade level does them a disservice. You are imposing constraints on them that are unnecessary and probably hold them back from growing as a writer.
Regarding the leftist perspective on the function of media and advancing an agenda. Some time ago, James Lileks was pounding on the intellectual nincompoop Norm Coleman. In a revealing exchange, Coleman said the role of journalists was to "stand up for the little guy." James was surprised and said that he thought the role of journalists was to report the news. I'd wager a great many MSM journalists would agree with Coleman.
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