A report released recently revealed that during the last decade the reading and writing skills of college graduates have declined. Not college applicants, mind you, college graduates. College graduates were, of course, once applicants themselves and there’s nothing new about the degradation of language skills of those graduating from high school.

What this report tells us is that college instructors and professors are able to make little headway against this tide of ignorance and in all probability have had to pass students who in earlier times would have failed their courses. But a professor who fails students becomes unpopular and unpopular teachers soon find themselves former teachers, as student evaluations equate to student tuitions and the bean counters take heed.

The news pundits are citing television (old news) and internet surfing as the culprits for students’ lack of English abilities. News flash: you have to be able to read to surf the internet, unless all you’re doing is playing games.

In my opinion, the root cause for the lack of language abilities is what I call Junk Language. From their earliest days, children communicate like this:

Yo! Whassup?
Dunno. Whassup?

They progress as young adults to more intricate and meaningful communication:

Hi. Howya doin?
‘S fine. How ‘bout you?
Great. Nice weather.
Yeah, awesome, Dude.

I feel silly using capital letters, commas and periods in the above examples, since the slurring monotone and the lack of basic structures, such as subject and predicate, doesn’t support them.

My point is that young children are not learning the fine art of conversation and exchange of ideas and grammatically correct expression. They speak junk language all through the formative years when language and expression of ideas are learned in the home, on the streets and at school. Written language is based on the spoken language. It’s too late by the college years to try to make up for 18 years of junk. That's asking the impossible.