I have also noticed what I see as a decline in quality editing of recently published books. How are we supposed to learn the correct sentence structure if our books sloppy?

Reply from Sherry: Indeed, you share my view of why, at least in part, many of us don’t write as well as we could. If many professionals don’t know about grammar, punctuation, etc., then from whom are we supposed to learn? After all, reading is part of the process of learning how to write.

I taught my three sons to read at a very early age too but never forced it on them. They’re all voracious readers still. And their grammar & use of the language is excellent too (although the youngest isn’t much of a speller). It’s not something we’ve ever had to think about. And that’s why I believe reading lots, especially while growing up, forms the main basis for good language structure. Deciding whether to write its or it’s, whose or who’s or whether to use the plural form of a verb when the subject is “one of ___” has never been a problem.

If someone, not colour blind, grew up only among people who were colour blind (to read & green & thought it the same colour), he(she) might assume that that a single word applied to both colours, even though they saw the colour difference. It’s similar to people with language now. Whether something is spoken or written grammatically correct or not, few people see a difference. Both seem fine to them. Even among friends who are educated & quite intelligent – if they’re not readers, their language skills are only average to poor. And surprisingly to me, one of these friends is a public speaker! He’s an amazingly good speaker but only a so-so writer.

Too bad more people don’t know the joys of reading. And with the way our world has opened to other cultures, there are countless wonderful translations of foreign classics to be enjoyed too.
Excuse me for being snoopy, Paul & Sherry, but how much do you two read when you can? And what sort of books do you enjoy reading?