Skillful Writing

Some people just can't tell a joke. -- Pug Mahoney

   Writing is a skill. And, like any other skill, it can be taught and its techniques learned.
   Most people struggle through their early years of schooling being forced to memorize the labels -- usually Latin-based terms -- for things they already know.
   For example, children internalize the structural rules of their native language by the age of six. They just don't know the grammarian's formal names for these rules.
   Consider the time and effort spent trying to teach children the case system for nouns -- nominative, genitive, dative and accusative. The problem teachers face in trying to foist this onto unsuspecting children is that the case system, where a word changes its form according to its function in a sentence, does not exist in modern English. There is, however, one small exception: pronouns.
   In some other languages, such as German, Russian and Latin, a noun must change its form depending on whether it is the subject of a sentence, the object of a verb, or to show possession.
   So what's the point of teaching little kids something they will never use? An argument could be made that knowledge of any kind is never wasted. In addition, when the kids reach secondary school, an introduction to the case system might be useful when and if they take up the study of a foreign language that does use the case system.
   However, many high school students opt to take Spanish or French, neither of which uses a case system. Moreover, many other students go to a trade school or a non-academic curriculum that does not require a second language.
   In any case, as with other skills and talents, some folks are more adept than others. Anyone can be taught to play piano, but few rise to the level of Dave Brubeck.
   Likewise, basic education teaches everyone to write, but few are able to put words together as well as J.K. Rowling. And many folks read aloud, but few do it as well as Lester Holt, the NBC TV news anchor. In fact, many people, when they read aloud, do it in a monotone.
   Reading aloud is a skill, just as some people can tell a joke and provoke laughter, while others can't.
   Anyway, the advice to students is to learn as much as you can about as many subjects as you can, then focus on those that you can do well.