The Importance of Correctness

I feel that there isn’t a necessity to write “correctly” all the time. And by correctly, I’m talking about correct grammar, punctuation, spelling, thesis, transitions, ect. Often times, being able to just write freely, gives your more leeway to write what you want to write instead of getting mixed up with the correctness of the writing. Whenever I begin a paper, I just write. I don’t care about the spelling, or if the sentences flow, or if the paragraphs compliment each other. While more and more ideas flood my brain, I try to write them down as quickly as possible, not caring if everything is correct. Rules of Thumb goes over many aspects of writing such as spelling, grammar, punctuation, how to put a paper together, and the style in which you use. And, yes this is all important information to use when writing. However if you get tangled up in all of this “correctness” you will never reach the actual writing part. It is like I told my ELL college student I was paired up with for ENGL 470; just write and get your ideas down on paper. Then we will go through and work on the correctness as an entirety of the paper, next work on individual sentences, and lastly spelling, grammar, and punctuation.

With this said, I definitely feel that correctness is important for published work or what students usually call “Final Draft.” When you write a piece you want your selected audience to be able to read it. Generally in the U.S., the selected audience is that of English speakers therefore your paper should take use of Standard English. You don’t want your audience to be distracted by errors of correctness. You want them to be engaged in your writing instead.