Teach by Example

"Taking Notes" - WIX Stock Photo

One of Feature Friday’s regular blog-readers was taken with a particular passage from last week’s blog and told me so. He said he’d be interested in reading more about this particular concept:

“I personally encourage writers to strive for good grammar. When you write, you also teach by example. Well-written prose creates skilled readers. Strong readers develop into sharp thinkers, and very often, into writers.”

I get why he wanted me to expound. I kind of flipped into the last article with a bunch of ideas and made a brief introduction of each of several points. He thought this one, above, was singularly the highlight. An example of “food for thought,” certainly. One kernel, when planted, may grow into a whole and flourishing entity. When referring to “teaching by example,” I agree it’s a subject worthy of much attention.

There was a long period in history when people made their livings by apprenticing to master craftsmen or tradesmen (this also included domestic and artistic skills passed among the womenfolk in many communities). The quality of the goods and services produced was prided by teacher and student alike, for it not only guaranteed more patronage for the artisans, but also provided a satisfaction in living a life that was often difficult to navigate or endure, in most of its other facets.

While there still exists some activity in today’s modern world that could be said to resemble “apprenticing” — largely, in white-collar professions such as doctoring and lawyering, and a few financial and business trades, with typical offers of unpaid internships — in comparison to centuries gone by, there is very little one-on-one, expected training to be had these days.

Add to that, much of today’s education is general for the common population, a fair spread of basic opportunity, with continuing education often just as general or abstracted. Our western world culture, and much of eastern world culture, attempts to even out the intellectual playing field with promises of basic education for all. Despite the sensibility of such a provision, it often seems like the majority of populaces in many social cultures chooses to endorse or apply a bare minimum of that general education in everyday intellectual lives.

Fortunately, for the literate and their instructors, reading is a skill that often develops by virtue of repetitive immersion. (Encourage, encourage, encourage!) Not all readers comprehend what goes on behind the scenes of the writers’ craft, but they are influenced — both positively and negatively — by the finished products.

The more a reader reads, almost always, the better he or she reads over time. And the better (or worse) the writing, the more the improved reader usually notices that it is so. In the meantime, though, she is subconsciously, through example, learning the craft of writing while reading.

However, if our aforementioned reader consumes a consistently steady diet of poorly-written material, but without the counter-influences of correct, well-written examples, she will subliminally learn bad writing habits that she will wrongly emulate and reproduce when going on to try her hand at writing, too.

Then there are the highly observant readers, who will also learn on conscious levels. These readers are the ones who will question what you’ve written. They may try to take you to task. And you, also, may learn from them, as well as they from you. It’s especially important to present your best work to these critical thinkers. Not because you should worry about being judged, but because you can teach them to become even more discerning in their thinking.

Writers, be master crafters. You can influence your readers in so many ways. So, why not strive to give them comprehension abilities like yours by making sure your craft is as particularly polished as it can be? Your readers are your apprentices. They’ll learn by “watching” (through reading) what you write, and how you write it.

#grammar #reading #teaching #craftsmanship #craft