4 Questions

Wow! This is one of the most content-packed 40 pages I have ever read. I'm grateful we are not expected to summarize it, because I would have a really hard time.

Studying the lives of writing teachers throughout history raises some fascinating questions that are just as relevant today as centuries ago. I'll ask some of them and attempt a short answer to each.

QUESTION 1: Are talented writers born or made? The Sophists and Plato and Socrates thought you had to be born with writing talent -- and if you were not, there wasn't much you could do about it. I think, however, that while some people are born with more talent than others, most people can significantly improve their writing with practice and guidance.

QUESTION 2: What's more powerful: the written word or the spoken word? As a child of the early TV age, I hear the words of JFK and Martin Luther King ringing in my ears and answer "the spoken word." But I also love witty quotes and lines of great poetry. I do think that anyone who writes should read their work out loud in order to better edit their work.

QUESTION 3: What's more important: content or form? I think content: if what you're saying is boring or foolish, no amount of editing will be able to conceal the flaw. But if you have a good idea, even if it's clumsily written in the first draft, you should eventually be able to express it articulately.

QUESTION 4: Does the freedom of writers rely on the existence of a truly functioning democracy? You bet. Look what happened to poor Cicero at the hands of despots Anthony and Octavian. To tell the truth, I have never much worried about my writing being suppressed by the government, even in the extremely unlikely case that I become a famous writer. But McCarthyism, which happened here only some 50 years ago, put many writers out of work and some in prison. So I believe that anyone who cares about reading and writing should do whatever they can to preserve and participate in our democracy -- by voting, campaigning, writing letters to Congress, newspapers and political blogs, or volunteering in community activities.