What we have here is a failure to communicate

Crappy writing is everywhere, and I dedicate this blog to saving the world from it.

I'm not talking about bad screenplays and novels; I'll let the critics worry about those. I'm talking about everyday writing: emails, reports, blogs, letters, presentations, instruction manuals, road directions and all other prosaic prose.

This is important, because we are in the midst of a writing crisis. We are spewing out more words than ever—in over 100 million blogs alone. But the words are failing to achieve what the writers set out to do. Everyone is talking but no one is listening. Blah blah blah.

I don't intend this blog to be another smug rant about the decline of intelligent life on Earth (although some ranting is inevitable, and fun). We're going to look at failed writing and try to understand why it fails. And then we're going to fix it. Starting next time.