Wilbers: Remembering how to write in a technology-driven world

In a world where every nanosecond counts, you need to multitask, absorb information in a heartbeat and make rapid-fire decisions. You need to be agile, nimble, quick.

You also need to know something people have known since the beginning of civilization: language.

To go beyond the plain and simple to the nuanced and complex, to go beyond 140 characters to carefully structured paragraphs that are logically arranged into a coherent whole, you need to slow down. You need to learn the basics.

For all the wonderful things they do, computers get in our way. They seduce us with their mind-boggling features and distract us from more important matters. Even as they empower us, they undermine our abilities.

In my estimation, we're losing ground in the following areas. I invite you to prove me wrong.

Correct punctuation

Correct the errors in the following sentences:

2. I love my job (especially my three weeks' vacation.)

Word choice

Identify the correct word:

3. Our principal/principle concern is economic justice.

4. For their grand opening, they offered complementary/complimentary drinks.

Give five synonyms for

5. False

6. Unremarkable

Sensitivity to appropriate level of formality

Rewrite the first sentence to make it less stilted, and the second to make it more formal:

8. We are looking to improve customer service.

Variety in sentence structure

9. Define a periodic sentence.

10. Restructure the first sentence of the third paragraph in this column to make it a loose sentence.

Coherent development

12. To connect your thought to a previous paragraph, open the next paragraph with what type of sentence?

Here are the answers:

1. Replace the comma after time with a period or a semicolon to correct the comma splice.

2. Move the period outside the closing parenthesis. (Three weeks' vacation is correct.)

3. Principal.

5. Erroneous, fabricated, contrived, spurious, specious, etc.

6. Ordinary, banal, mundane, pedestrian, quotidian, etc.

7. I recommend we study this issue.

8. We are committed or dedicated to improving customer service.

9. In a periodic sentence, a series of phrases or clauses appears before the main clause (unlike a loose sentence, in which a series of phrases or clauses appears after the main clause).

11. Topic, development, resolution.

12. With a transitional topic sentence, such as "Despite its many benefits, the computer undermines our relationship with language."

My guess is if you're 30 years old or younger, you scored six or lower, and if you're 31 or older, you scored 7 or higher.

Much as we love our devices, we need to be aware of their limitations. In some ways the computer helps, but in other ways it hinders.