Thoughts about writing

All through high school I slipped by writing mediocre papers for easy classes. I never understood the value of good writing skills. I never realized how words could come to life on paper. That is until I took several advanced writing classes during my first two years of college. My professors emphasized how today's younger generation are taking the english language for granted with all of our "abbrevies" (lol, nbd, hbu). Technology today has made it so easy for us to slide by without ever learning the proper way to write a paper. I was a teaching assistant two years ago for a lower level english class at KVCC. I was amazed at how many students were not able to format a paper properly, let alone use proper grammar, punctuation, and spelling. During that semester I realized how important proper writing skills are and began to look at my own compositions more critically. I will never be one of those people who could sit and write for hours or speak in metaphorical terms, but I am working on building my vocabulary and have become more conscious of bad writing habits that I have. I do like writing and think that you can get a lot further in your career if you have stronger writing skills than others.