I adore Elder Holland. To fill a spiritual craving I've had, I've reverted to listening to his speeches on my commute to and from school; today is featuring "Nailing Our Colors to the Mast," from 1985. It is filled with powerful phrases about the opportunities that are ours and the obligation we have to make our predecessors proud, but one part that really stuck out to me was the following paragraph (pulled from speeches.byu.edu, one of BYU's greatest websites):
"Please learn to write well and to speak the language with some precision...If I have one overwhelming disappointment in my professional life as an educator it is the general inability I find in college-educated people to write well. Edward R. Murrow once said that Winston Churchill won the Second World War by "mobiliz[ing] the English language and send[ing] it into battle" (Edward R. Murrow, I Can Hear It Now [19331945], Columbia Records). Perhaps it will help you win your battles, or get a job, or change a nation. The prophets of God have known that the impact of the inspired, compelling word, spoken or written, is among the most powerful forces on earth. You should discover that too."
I hate to harp, but I am frequently disappointed by the inability of my colleagues and coworkers to coherently express their thoughts in written form. One of my professors once said, "The people with the words are the people who have the power" and I couldn't agree more: here's to all of us pushing to practice and improve our writing, one of our most powerful tools of persuasion.
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