The quality of written work is important.

First, the caveat! I entreat those of you who are seasoned and excellent writers to not be offended by my comments below. You may rightly think that you don't need a mini-lecture on writing. Please bear with me. Read through the comments and use the ones you find to be relevant.

As you might suppose, I have high expectations for the quality of writing produced by learners at the undergraduate level. I believe how well you state something is integral to the soundness of the content you are conveying; the two are intertwined. Imprecise or ungrammatical writing signals lack of conceptual crispness. "Good thinking" and "bad writing" usually do not coexist. In the workplace, excellent writing gets people's attention. Good writing signals leadership potential.

Good writing is hard work.

Each of you has had training in writing, and some of you know what the principles are. Putting them in practice is the challenge. If I had to boil down into a single thought or phrase what I think is most essential to effective writing, it would be this: attention to detail. Think precision. Precision is both a process and a product.

Be sure your grasp of the English language is complete and correct. Here is an example of a common misuse of a word: "In today's discussion, we are going to hone in on the early weeks of the Civil War." The word "hone" means sharpen, as in sharpening a knife. It is the wrong word to use in the context above. A correct, metaphoric use of "hone" would be this one: "Today we are going to hone our pronunciation skills." In the first sentence, the correct word in place of "hone" is "home"--" . . . we are going to home in on the early weeks of the Civil War." If you have the slightest doubt about the appropriateness of a word for the context in which you are using it, look up that word in the dictionary.