The American Scholar has published an excellent address given in August 2009 by William Zinsser (of On Writing Well fame) to incoming international students at the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism. Here’s an important take-away on writing in the new media age:
Some of you, hearing me talk to you so urgently about the need to write plain English, perhaps found yourself thinking: “That’s so yesterday. Journalism has gone digital, and I’ve come to Columbia to learn the new electronic media. I no longer need to write well.” I think you need to write even more clearly and simply for the new media than for the old media. You’ll be making and editing videos and photographs and audio recordings to accompany your articles. Somebody—that’s you—will still have to write all those video scripts and audio scripts, and your writing will need to be lean and tight and coherent: plain nouns and verbs pushing your story forward so that the rest of us always know what’s happening. This principle applies—and will apply—to every digital format; nobody wants to consult a Web site that isn’t instantly clear. Clarity, brevity, and sequential order will be crucial to your success.
This principle of clarity and brevity is particularly relevant for those of us in Christian ministry. The speed with which we can get our prose out is mind-boggling. And the temptation is to say, “In the Twitter world, proper English really doesn’t matter. They’ll get it. Besides, I’m real busy and this thought is so profound it just needs to get out there (especially before someone else says it first).” But, of course, clarity and brevity do matter because without it the message we’re trying to communicate can be lost.
I think Zinsser is right. We “need to write even more clearly and simply for the new media than for the old media.” How much more important is this when our subject matter is the gospel?
Is there enough evidence for us to believe the Gospels?
In an age of faith deconstruction and skepticism about the Bible’s authority, it’s common to hear claims that the Gospels are unreliable propaganda. And if the Gospels are shown to be historically unreliable, the whole foundation of Christianity begins to crumble.
