Getting it just write

In an age of high-tech communications and declining newspaper sales, it may seem as if good writing is a thing of the past. Some might say it is, but a quick look at top-selling fiction, the blogosphere and television writing — or lack thereof because of the Hollywood writers strike — complicates the picture.

“I’m not ready to write the obituary on writing,” says Linda Coleman, associate professor of English at the University of Maryland.

“If anything, I see an improvement among students,” adds Ms. Coleman, who has been teaching linguistics for 30 years; one of her current courses entails teaching grammar to journalism students.

Bob Thompson, a pop-culture professor at Syracuse University, says the Writers Guild of America strike shows how important good writing is for television.

“In the grand scheme of things, American pop culture would be in sorry shape if you didn’t have good writing,” Mr. Thompson says. “Starting in the mid-‘90s, we demanded good [television] writing or we were not going to make it a hit.”

Think HBO’s “The Sopranos” and even network shows such as “24” and “Lost.”

Richard Sterling, a professor of education at the University of California at Berkeley and executive director emeritus of the National Writing Project, a professional development network for teachers of writing at all grade levels, says cutting-edge technology — contrary to what some might think — has only improved writing.

“It’s very interesting, but in this era of technology, we’ve had a miniature explosion of writing,” Mr. Sterling says. “Technology is actually promoting writing.”

So, writing is not necessarily in decline; it just has found new venues?

“Yes, I would say that it’s in decline in its most prototypical sense,” Ms. Coleman says. “Prototypical” meaning conventional newspaper and hardcover fiction. “But people are writing elsewhere. Just look at the blogs. … It’s [exciting] because more people can self-publish and there’s less mediation.”

Granted, not all blog writing is good-quality writing, she says, but that’s always been the case. No matter what era you consider, writing always has been a mixed bag, she says.

“We look at the late 1800s as the golden age of literature, but that was also the era of awful dime novels,” she says. “Much of it didn’t survive.”

Also, back then, many people could barely write their names, she says.

That’s Mr. Sterling’s point. If anything, he says, the general state of writing has only improved since more and more people are going to school: In the 1950s, just 50 percent of children graduated from high school; now close to 90 percent do. Also in the 1950s, just 15 percent of the population went on to higher education; now that number is close to 70 percent.

“I think the idea that writing used to be better is pure nostalgia,” Mr. Sterling says.

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