In this day and age where literacy rates are decreasing and AI is taking over, the future of writing seems more futile than ever. You may think “why even write if no one will read it?” or “why even write if a robot can do the same, if not better?”
In my opinion, it’s the opposite. It’s so important to keep pursuing writing right now. Writing will give Generation Z and Alpha a voice in a world that is controlled by artificial intelligence and biased information.
What do you even want to write, anyway?
English teacher and adviser for the Pawprint Ms. Austin always encourages us to spread our wings and write all sorts of articles, fun and serious. This is great advice, but it’s always good to find your niche too. After all, you don’t want to write so many boring papers that you burn out and lose your passion for writing.
Obviously there are countless kinds of writing. You could write a novel, a short story, an opinion column, a news article, an informational essay, a poem or a song. The best way to find which genre of writing you’re passionate about is to try them all out. Attending Dr. Sterba’s creative writing class here at North is a good way to test out different mediums in a digestible way. I recommend it if you’re interested in writing fiction.
You’ll likely enjoy writing the same genre you enjoy reading. I personally like browsing Wikipedia and reading informational news articles, which has influenced my writing style and preference for writing about current events (just one look at my profile will confirm this for you).
Read something, anything…
You will indubitably struggle to write if you don’t read. All good artists consume art for inspiration and writers are no exception.
If reading a book is too much of a commitment or you simply don’t have enough time for one, start small. Read an article online. I know a great place where you can read articles written by your fellow students online for free…
You don’t just learn from the content of a book. Your vocabulary, grammar and writing style, the most important aspects of writing, are influenced heavily by the things you read. Where do you think I know the word indubitably from? Certainly not from everyday conversation.
Though you don’t technically need big words to get your point across, it makes you sound smarter. That sounds superficial, but that’s the kind of credibility you need to persuade, inform or entertain your reader.
Get feedback
It’s really hard to listen to someone else point out every grammar mistake, misspelled word and flaw in your paper. It can make you feel like you’re incompetent. However, receiving constructive criticism in order to improve is simply part of the process. If you don’t know what you’re doing wrong, you’ll keep making those mistakes and never improve.
Ask your English teacher for some feedback on your writing style and your grammar. Spell check and Grammarly may be useful tools, but they cannot replace human feedback. Some things like style and fancy sentence structure cannot be understood by AI.
You will disagree with the feedback you receive sometimes and that’s perfectly fine. Just take all good faith criticism to heart.
Writing is challenging, but being able to express yourself and be creative is worth the effort. Interested in writing? Or learning more about it in a low-pressure environment? There’s still time to join Newspaper – we’d love to have you!
