Donovan-Wright Associates

Granted, the space is small, and the characters limited to just 140. But let’s go for the ultimate challenge – forget the abbreviations and truncations, and go for the gusto instead! Craft your writing correctly within the confines of 140 characters; let it float in the air like sea foam in the breeze. Okay, okay, I remain the proverbial English teacher, but I am also a fan of doing things right. When I see Twitter posts that are filled with “trash,” and I don’t mean that the content is trash, I can’t deal. These tweets might as well be in another language, so what’s the sense?

Do I like Twitter? Yes, under the right circumstances. And I’ll expound on that later. But for now, I challenge you to work on your writing skills so you can fit it all in in 140 characters.

Twitter Away

Think about it. The essay is everywhere! I suppose it never went totally away, but today it is certainly ubiquitous! And as a quintessential English professor, I can barely contain my excitement. (I’ll try, watching this English teacher do cartwheels down the hall would not be a pretty thing).

Take this entry right here. This is an essay. Take most blog entries — they’re essays. I say “most” because there are those that are all image, audio, or video, but even those are essays, albeit in different media.

Writing an essay takes thought, planning, organizing and plain old good writing skills. With the blog exploding as today’s means of expression, people are paying attention to their writing and skills are improving!

Essay Writing is Here to Stay