It used to be that teachers in grade school drilled writing basics into students and high school teachers refined their abilities. Now, thanks to “progressive” education theories, it’s year after year of banalities, with never a red mark to be seen.

And what happens in college? Students must go through a writing course where the professor (usually a harried adjunct) is supposed to “brush up” their long-neglected grammar. That’s too little, too late, but college officials pretend that one course is adequate. After freshman year, students usually encounter no further serious attention to their writing. Rigorous evaluation of papers is just something that few professors are willing to do.

Maguire sums up this way: “Today’s college writing is a big, knotted mess, decades in the making, and I don’t know for sure how to untangle it or what sword will cut through it. Still, if you can’t write a sentence, you can’t write, and too many of today’s students just can’t write sentences. Many graduate without that fundamental skill.”