“For thousands of years, illiterate people were the norm, and it didn’t bother anyone except saints and fanatics.” © Strugatsky brothers
In our era, autocorrect on the phone and the red wavy line in the Word program not only corrects, but also finds errors. Today, a comma that is in the wrong place in a message is unlikely to cause indignation in the interlocutor. Modernity, in which the voice typing function of letters has appeared, says that it is possible to write illiterately.
But this is not true at all. And despite the rapid development of technology and techniques, a person needs to remain literate. Why? Let's figure it out together.
1. Literate writing = possession of rights and freedoms
The fairy tale about unlearned lessons, known to everyone since childhood, was supposed to explain not only that ignorance is darkness, but also that an incorrectly expressed thought can cost someone their life. Now, when a person can be deprived of work or housing without a correctly completed document, knowing the language is extremely important!
In the practice of many lawyers, there are cases when clients, due to disregard for school rules of the Russian language, lost court cases and were left with nothing: someone could put a comma in the wrong place, and someone could incorrectly decline their own last name.
Yes, all these official and formal documents confuse us every day, but without them we simply cannot defend our rights: even when you are flooded by a neighbor from the upper floor, you need to write a statement to the police, which they will never accept if, for example, the word tenant is written there with the letter “y”.
So, the ability to correctly express our thoughts on paper is the key to our confidence in our relations with the law and law enforcement agencies.
2. Literate writing = mutual understanding
A story about how a person who expresses his thoughts clumsily will be impossible to understand. Remember how, when talking to a foreigner or a small child, you could only grasp the general direction of the conversation, often missing the really important things.
It sounds scary, but today many people who grew up in Russia start writing as if the language is foreign to them. Surprisingly, one day this could lead to war: just remember how many polysemantic words there are in the Russian language and what an amazing syntax it has! An incorrectly used adverbial participial phrase can cause a quarrel between lovers; a sentence written without commas can be a miscalculation in architectural projects…
Because of illiteracy, anything can happen except our understanding of each other.
3. Literacy = prestige
I hope that each of you understands: “clothes” are the only way to meet someone, but they will always see you off “according to your mind.” Thus, employers give preference to those who do not mix up -ться and -ться in an email; beautiful girls choose men who remember about the comma after the address.
It has always been accepted in society: a literate person is an educated person, because the ability to clearly express one’s thoughts cannot indicate a lack of intelligence!
Therefore, it is important to remember the basic rules of the Russian language even in a hurry, following which will one day help you achieve a good position in society.
4. Literacy = good memory
Here everything will be brief: rules and exceptions, vocabulary words, patterns and sequences… Knowing and using all this in practice helps our memory develop day by day.
Why is a strong memory so important today? Because it is the key to a healthy old age, a lively mind and an unburdened brain, which – due to modern realities – is forced to absorb new information every second.
In conclusion, I would like to say that the question of the necessity of the ability to write correctly should not arise in the head. This skill should become our everyday life, as ordinary as brushing teeth in the morning. It is really necessary as a reason why people are able to understand each other.
