It is impossible for me to agree with you more strongly than I do now.

I’m with Padron! YES!

Well, I’m going to disagree, sort of.    I think good grammar should be taught in grade school and truly persuasive writing should be taught in high school.    If I’m still worried about my child’s writing by the time he’s old enough for college, we’ll be looking at trade schools.    (Assuming, of course, my child doesn’t want to be a professional writer, in which case I’m sure college could still teach him a thing or twenty).

For those of us that write fairly well, what recommendations do you have to improve our writing skills?  I’d like to write better and be able to articulate my thoughts on paper easier.

Is anyone else cracking up at the “vacuum cleaner that blows instead of sucks” line?

I guess it’s not so much the need to know how to write but rather how to defend the Faith. Even if you misspell words, if a Catholic can still defend the Truth, that would be far more superior!  As a convert to the Faith myself, I’ve found that learning about the Faith is a continuous process.  And learning how to defend the teachings of the Church is also a huge challenge but a necessary one (especially around election time). I am pretty sure a Cardinal at the Vatican said that it is our OBLIGATION to study and learn the Faith and defend it (in our words and actions… so that means in things like voting for the moral, pro-life candidate, etc.).

@Eric - Thanks for asking!  I am working on a follow-up post with specific tips for tightening up writing—should be up on Thursday.

grt artcl i like totlly agreeee w/u
In all seriousness, whenever I receive a text message or email like that, I always want to ignore it and to pretend I can’t understand it.  I then decide that would be uncharitable, and reply with a properly spelled and punctuated message.
As a college student, I think the ability to write well is very underrated.  Courses, and most careers, will be much easier if you can clearly express your thoughts.

Simcha,
I’m biased because I have worked as a professional writer in some capacity for most of my professional career before I stayed home with my child.

Still, bias aside, you are correct. Even if you go to trade school. Even if you work as a waitress your whole life. Even if you never go to college and are a stay-home mother of eight kids.

Ever have a grievance? Ever have a complaint? Ever get a tax bill in the mail, only to discover your taxes owed were miscalculated? Unless you have a firm grasp of the written word, your appeal and case stand to suffer if you aren’t able to clearly and articulately state your position. With proper business etiquette, to boot.

I have a good friend who has spent almost his entire career as a college professor of English at Christian colleges. He has also spent time teaching high school in conjunction with inner city missions. You would not believe the stories he has told me about just the last few years, since the advent of text messaging. He claims that the quality of student writing in this short period of time has plummeted by about 75%. It’s incoherent, filled with text message-based spellings and abbreviations (seriously?), and no one can write a sentence beyond seven or ten words long to save their life. When you have to fight for those basics, how do you move beyond to work on the development of thought or theme?

Writing is directly connected to thinking skills, period. Those who read a lot tend to write better. Those who write well tend to think and reason better. History has generally (with some exceptions) bore out this truth.

Just last week I spent some time with a recent graduate of Christendom College. She wanted me to evaluate her resume. This is an outstanding woman who knows how to write well. As we scanned the internet for job postings she might be interested in, I couldn’t believe how even the job market has been reduced down to “sound bytes,” with online applications that ask for minimal information without the demand of having to present oneself successfully through written narrative or explanation. Granted, some companies still require a traditional resume and cover letter. But my friend was more intersted in applying for the jobs that were “easier” to apply for, without benefit of much written communication. So even she, an excellent writer and thinker, is being “dumbed down” by the process.

When the love affair we all have with quick and instant communication runs its course, I believe that the cream will rise to the top, and the cream will be, as it always has been, the writers.

Have I mentioned how much I hate Twitter?

I worked as a high school English teacher and now I’m an online writing tutor for college-level students. It isn’t so much the grammar and misspellings - those are bad enough but proofreading can help. It’s the fact that the vast majority of students cannot form complete, coherent thoughts. There is no logical organization to their writing. And waiting until college, or even high school, in order to teach them this skill is too late.

Therefore, I homeschool.

Amen sister. I am a writing teacher. Just argued with our 11-year-old whether the adjective for dystopia is dystopic or dystopian or both. This matters!

My husband used to teach astronomy at a junior college. He would include a few essay questions among the multiple choice and the true & false ones—just to see how well the students understood various concepts. He had to give it up because the written answers, even among the native English speakers, were so incoherent that it was impossible to tell if the answers were right or wrong. And this was before texting became a common practice, so the roots of the problem go back a little further.

Bravo, Simcha! As one who has spent years trying to teach college freshmen to read/think/write, I can testify that: 1) freshmen composition courses will never be able to “make up for what the high schools and elementary schools never taught,” and 2) the reason students can’t write is that they have never been taught to *read* or *think* and *that* is what colleges & universities should be teaching them to do (even—or especially—if their earlier education has failed to do this).

The ancient trivium on which all education was based until the modern era was grammar (reading & study of literature), logic (being able to reason soundly), and rhetoric (being able to articulate thought persuasively) and these three skills—reading/thinking/writing—continue to be intimately interdependent and fundamental to producing the kind of thoughtful and reasonable citizens that the world (and the Church) needs.

I hope you are planning to send your kids to one of the few Catholic colleges that emphasize these skills throughout their curriculum—such as the University of Dallas (my alma mater and my new place of employment), and a few others that understand that Catholic *education* goes far beyond mere Catholic *indoctrination.* As you point out, the Evangelists seem to have grasped this, and the New Evangelization to which the Church is calling all faithful Catholics will be better served if we come to embrace this truth, too.

My college, a secular state university, had requirement that every student take so many classes with a writing component.  I was first introduced to the “five-paragraph form” in my Intro. to Religious Studies.  But for the most part, if you don’t know how to put basic sentences together before you get to college you shouldn’t waste every one’s time.

When I was in elementary school I was drilled really well in the mechanics of writing, but I was never taught how to write anything with original thought.  It was all regurgitation.  I cringe when I think back on some of the papers I turned in to college and how I had no clue what my point even was.

I homeschool my kids and as I look into writing, grammar, logic, and rhetoric curriculum I realize that I am planning an education for them that I know I should have had.  And I find myself wanting to do the courses of study for myself.

“Ever tried to put together an appliance according to instructions written by a semi-literate engineer?”

Sorry, but that’s not the engineer’s doing, Simcha.  It’s the fault of the semi-literate translator of the Chinese or Japanese technical writer’s document.  Engineers don’t write assembly instructions.

Great column, Simcha.  So true.  C. S. Lewis wrote a good essay on this general topic called “Good Work and Good Works” or something like that, where he points out that we shouldn’t convince ourselves we’re doing good work just because we’re engaged in good works.

And Eileen, I think you’re too quick to dismiss what can be learned at college.  I’ve taught college freshman for a number of years, and although it’s very true that most enter college more or less illiterate, it’s not actually true that it’s too late.  A motivated student can make incredible strides even at that late date.  And good students who were competent high-school writers can learn to write with a depth and power as young adults that’s not possible for teenagers.

My high school taught writing very well, and I excelled there, but when I look back at my high school papers, they’re fluent and clever but obviously juvenile - superficial and overly-mannered.  Not until college did I have the maturity and independence of thought to become a mature and disciplined writer.

The reason so many college and university courses require little writing is because correcting written work (even with tutors etc to do it) is a lot of labor!! Unless the prof, tutor, or adjunct has the time to commit to it, it is just too difficult to try to differentiate between plagiarized and authentic work in a large, mostly anonymous, lecture course. Of course, this is one more reason to look at smaller colleges with smaller intro level class sizes.

I am a freelance editor and proofreader, and I can’t tell you how many freelance websites are flooded with small companies and individuals looking to hire ‘academic writers’ - essentially, writers who will complete college AND GRADUATE level writing assignments for pay. I have seen people offer to pay $200-300 for a master’s thesis.

A few years ago I taught research and writing skills to a group of 11-13 year old homeschoolers. It was tremendously satisfying to watch them master the basics of research, argumentation, citation, and the basic 5 paragraph essay. I told those kids that whether or not they were college bound, the ability to find information, form an opinion, and express that opinion clearly would help them to be better employees, better entrepreneurs, better citizens - better off overall, no matter where they wound up.

On the reverse side, somethings that really kill a good comment:
1. Excessive use of superfluous language
2. Excessively flowery rhetoric, as in waxing poetic or worse- waxing Shakespeare, like I’ve seen on here at times.
Also, those appliance instruction manuals always appear to be very bad translations from Chinese…but they are getting better.

Back when my mother was teaching sixth grade English (later dubbed “Language Arts” by the school board), at some point they took away spelling and grammar texts from the curriculum and told her to just let the kids write without worrying about those silly things, that they would “figure it out.”  She ignored them, kept teaching old-school grammar and spelling, and had a reputation as one of the meanest English teachers in the school.

...

Fast forward a few years, and I’m teaching college composition to freshmen, 90% of which are under the impression that SpellCheck will catch all their spelling errors AND grammar issues, including homophones, and I have a handful of students who know what a paragraph and a thesis statement are.  One of those students comes up to me and asks if my mother is Mrs. A., and did she teach at X Middle School.  I said, “Oh Lord, are you telling me you had my mom for English in sixth grade? What did you think of her?”  My student said, “Well, she was tough but fair.” That student went on to be my best student that semester.  The rest had to learn grammar from the ground up; I think we need to be teaching kids well before college that writing is about the foundation (grammar, spelling) as well as ideas.

...

Yes, yes, YES!!  I have long lurked on your blog & NCR articles, enjoying your writing, style and personality no end, but your first line had me SHRIEKING with laughter (so that my children were asking me “What’s wrong?”) and I had to tell you I simply could not agree more.  The regrettable ability to spew emotional vomit across a page/blog/comment box is NOT license to do it.

Thank you for having the guts to speak the truth, Simcha Fisher, and for making us laugh so hard while you do it.

One of the best ways to learn how to write is to read, a lot.

Having a firm grasp of written and spoken language, conviction, and a sense of logical continuity quickly put you in the top tier of nonprofessional writers.

I think there is a tendency to believe, or perhaps hope, that conviction and passion alone will get a message across clearly. That is rarely the case. If we look back at our own American Revolution we see that it relied heavily on mastery of language to spread and to explain itself. The high literacy rate of the colonies was essential to the success of the revolution. Without clear communication and exchange of ideas how could any lasting and coherent movement have formed? At some point ideas must be put into action but first they have to be properly articulated.

We’re seeing fallout from the subpar linguistic environment Simcha mentions in the Church, in politics, in business and in our personal lives. Some hide behind the lack of clarity, using it as an excuse not to provide clear answers or accounts of their beliefs or actions. Others enjoy shredding poorly written or spoken contributions, becoming hecklers of those involved rather than participants. Still others spend whatever time they have to address the issues sorting through all the poorly written, confusing and misleading sources, asking their friends for advice along the way just to try and form a basic opinion. We’ve become a country of catchphrases and caricatures because our cumulative ability to analyze and communicate substantive information is so poor.

@Chris:  Amen, but with this modification: Read WELL-WRITTEN books a lot.  Style- and grammar-wise, you are safe with the classics, and with a very few modern authors.  If you are reading poorly-written books, you aren’t helping yourself at all.

“It’s MegaMaid! She’s gone from suck to blow!”
But that aside, there is a large amount of Catholic writing out there (both the informal, blog/combox type and the published book type) that I dislike for various reasons, but I’d be willing to overlook at least some of it if the writing was competent.  I don’t know why that upsets me more than anything else, but I tend to get much more het up over a Catholic, or even anti-Catholic, book being poorly written than over it being wrong on some point of doctrine… 
So, I guess what I’m trying to say is: Amen, Simcha!!!!

@Mandylion - Thanks for that clarification. I thought about putting the quality of writing in my post. I had hoped it would be inferred. I had a coach in High School that said the adage, “Practice make perfect” is wrong. It should be, “Perfect practice makes perfect”.

There is no question that it is important to write well.  But I tend to see good writing as more of the bloom rather than the stem.  I think Lisa N. is right to join in the same breath writing with reading and thinking.  Good writing will not have much value in society that does not or cannot read or reason well.  Stated otherwise, I doubt the 90% who post unpunctuated regurgitation would recognize good writing, much less be moved by it.  First teach people to think or reason, and the writing would take care of itself.  (Or rather make virtue the priority.  To paraphrase the Elder Cato, a writer is simply a good person skilled in composition.)

I would suggest not waiting until college, though if there are colleges out there that really do have a track record for improving writing skills, kudos to them.  But learning how to express yourself clearly and LOGICALLY needs to start earlier.  My high school (Catholic all-girls) started preparing us to write essays for the AP exam in 7th grade, so by the time I was a senior, my teacher was telling us to dumb ourselves down to fit the rubric for the AP test.  When I was in graduate school (in the sciences), I discovered that the writing skills of many PhD candidates and PhDs were self-acknowledged to be abysmal, and several people I had conversations with cited their high school writing instruction, or lack there of, as the primary reason they were able to write or not.  Their college experience more or less maintained the status quo, even when they were determined to improve and took steps to do so.  The earlier kids get their brains wired in the correct way, the better, in my opinion…for what it’s worth.

Hear, hear!  If elementary schools spent less time trying to catch up with Asian standardized test scores, and more time on reading and writing we would see much improvement.  My daughter goes to the only Catholic school in our area and had math homework every single evening, but only had to do ONE book report for entire third grade school year.  Parent really MUST be the primary educators of their children, because even Catholic schools’ curriculum is weak.

I completely agree with this post. In the course of reading the comments on Jen Fulwiler’s recent atheism post, I noticed that the atheists are, for the most part, extremely well spoken and careful in their writing. Catholics definitely need to have strong writing skills to explain our beliefs. Also, it’s just downright annoying to read bad grammar and misspellings. I may be pedantic, but every word is spelled correctly! ;-)

Ok.. OK… i’ve heared enuf… i a good writer…I no a pedanic when i see one.

I’m just a High School science teacher - but I am with you every letter of the way!  I have to start the school year with instructions on the proper format for sending an e-mail to the teacher, otherwise I get unaddressed, angry/casual-toned text messages!
Even up to May, I still get this question: Does the answer have to be in a complete sentence? (!!!!)

Agreed Simcha!  I get SO frustrated when I am trying to read something credible and find grammatical errors.  Even professional literature is in great need of good editing!

Nothing hurts an argument like a spelling mistake.

Instruction manuals are, or should be, written by technical writers.  The writer absolutely requires a proficiency in the goal language.  As we all know this does not always happen.

Bring back grammar textbooks!

You done good! (Sorry, I couldn’t resist)

You DO vote in your local school board elections,then?

I love your writing and I couldn’t agree more with this article. I am looking forward to your follow-up!

I’m an adjunct teacher at a university. I’ve just spent a good hour correcting a short assigment sent to me by a student who wants to be an elementary school teacher.  Her enthusiasm is laudable, but her writing is gushing and not at all professional.  My state mandates a lot of writing in the schools.  Evidently it doesn’t mandate correcting the writing.

Nice topic, Simcha.
Note to Uncle Matthew:  You do parodies on other topics also, right?
TeaPot562

You’re right about writing. But texts, instant messages and quick comments aren’t term papers. I don’t mind run-on sentences or no capitals or no punctuation marks in such exchanges as long as the meaning is clear.

I agree with your article.  Writing clearly and concisely is important.  I have to admit to getting lazy myself after writing so much in social media and texting. Even if you were a good writer before (I was an English major before switching to music), you can loose it without practicing and honing those skills.

I must have gone to pretty good schools.  My high school had a “College Writing” class where you learned the different styles and purposes of writing, including how to do a big research paper.  It was excellent.  Unfortunately, that must be uncommon since 2 years later in my first year of college I was required to take an identical class with all the incoming freshman.  Actually, come to think of it, a lot of my college classes were no more difficult than my hs courses. Go figure.

I agree wholeheartedly!  I will second an edorsement of the Univ. of Dallas, a school that is solid and requires LOTS of writing.

What is bitterly ironic to me is that my writing has improved vastly because of the internet, specifically from blogging and arguing with pro-abortion nitwits in com boxes.  I am far too OCD to abbreviate or use the common texting vernacular, so I’ve practically written essays all over the internet.  I am not proud of that, because it is such a waste of time, and yet my ability to dismantle a pro-abortion/pro-birth control argument is something I really value now.  God works in mysterious ways.

One of the best books I have ever read to aid in developing coherent thoughts in my writing was Peter Kreeft’s “Socratic Logic.” I think it should be required reading for all college freshman.

Amen, sister.

in addition to reading a lot (!), the best thing i did in school to learn how to formulate my thoughts was to join the debate team.  debating taught me how to reason well, how to support my reasoning, and how to communicate that reasoning (though when i got to college and took a public speaking class i had to learn how to slow down my rate of speech).  not every debate team does this well (or at all), but mine did and it was probably the single most useful thing in my total educational history (including college).

Dear Simcha,
I’m sure you were anxiously awaiting the following.
1. “And this is what we need more of.” Avoid beginning a sentence with a conjunction, and ending a sentence with a preposition (unless using a colloquialism). Also, the preposition “this” lacks a clear antecedent, since you’ve just begun a new paragraph with this sentence.
2. “And yet.” This is not a sentence. It is certainly not a paragraph. Consider revising.

Overall your essay is clear, ideas are presented in logical fashion and flow naturally. Some points appear to be open for debate. Well done. A-
(The above is to be taken with a grain of salt and a big smile!)

@freddy-in-a-hair-net-with-granny-glasses:  And yet.  People pay me to write this crap.  A+.

That was supposed to be a joke.  I actually (briefly)address the issue of technically imperfect writing in tomorrow’s post!

I LOVE THIS POST.  Bad spelling and grammar just drive me up the wall; I cannot believe the number of acquaintances on Facebook (both younger and older) who do not know the difference between “your” and “you’re”!  It kills me!  I’m currently going back to school to get my teaching certification for K-8 with an endorsement to teach literature (I want to work with middle schoolers).  And I fully intend that no matter what I end up teaching, there will be plenty of reading and writing assignments, because without those basics, the rest won’t make much of a difference.

Very simply - Yes.

Absolutely! I couldn’t agree any more. And you have written this so perfectly and beautiful, because you have been educated. I wouldn’t expect a word of my writing to be printed without a professional editor as you. Thank you so much for this letter that is much over due!  I hope you can appreciate my blog (with a bit of humor and a lot of mistakes) that I wrote back in March 22, 2010;

Well, I’m not really a Professional writer, yet!


I have a story, I long to tell!

As I sat in the dentist chair having my annual cleaning, the new hygienist over heard from others in the office that I was writing a book.  And she asked me, “What is the book about?”  Before I began sharing what I am writing on, I said, “Well, I’m not really a professional writer!” Then shortly after I said that, I silently thought to myself; why did I tell her that?  (Because I’m truly not a professional writer.)  I was a professional hair stylist for 25 years.  I have earned that degree, through education, practice, and years of servitude.  And I have been writing for less than two years now. - With not much more in education with skills in writing other than I had in High School!  How can I say I am a writer?-  is what my heart said to me.  I believe our hearts tell us these things by the nudges we feel, it speaks the truth to us and leads us in the right path, to the way of fulfillment. 
 
Through practice, we can become a writer, a hairstylist, or whatever we set our hearts on. But, we have to put in that time and study.  Which is truly what the professional writers have done, is the nudge that I felt while sitting in the chair.

Although I am not a writer by profession, the fact is that, I long to tell my story.  And I will need a professional writer/editor who will help me rearrange the words in my story in the right proper grammar, alignment, and creative flow that unveils the true thought intended.  Something in the same way, (this may sound silly), that I rearrange the hair on our heads, to bend, shape, or curl in the creative flow that unveils the beauty that is there.  In the same way a professional writer requires the service of the hairstylist, even though they may well be able to do their own hair.  It still doesn’t give them the license to practice on anyone other than themselves. Maybe this is the same fact in writing, to me.  Without some degree in education, why would we be expecting to do it alone, as well?

I come to these true facts about precision writing even more so, in the genre of religion/inspirational, after spending time here in the Red Room Writing Society.  I have met some of the most amazing writers in the world, professionally and more personable!  Yes, most of us can write the words down, just the same as most of us can do our own hair.  And even though there are some who are naturally creative in their talents, it is only logical, reasonable, and rightfully due, when we hear these truths that we give our highest regard for the earned profession with gratitude that they deserve.  And to reward their year’s of study and professional knowledge to the experts that they’ve become with our need of them. -  Regardless to what profession we have studied, we earned the degrees and become the Professionals!

I have a story to tell that requires the professional help and support of a writer/ editor to increase my chances to be published, and can more than likely only improve it and speed up the manifestation process.  Or else an extended education on my part.  Because, well, I’m not really a professional writer, yet!

If your child cannot write fairly coherent paragraphs by junior high, then it is time to take drastic action (like homeschooling). I pulled my daughter out of a very poorly run Catholic school in the beginning of 5th grade, and 1 year later her writing skills had improved remarkably. She is in high school now (attending an academically competitive, private school) and she is taking Journalism and AP Literature this term. She is an excellent writer and much better at spelling now. Homeschooling was one of the most time-consuming, difficult, and challenging things I had to do as a parent. But, the results were astonishing in every way. My daughter has a strong faith, good values, and we have a close, loving relationship. She is respectful, confident and well-behaved in general. I wouldn’t trade the time I spent with her for all the goodies that money can buy!

I’ll try to write my response orthographically correct and with both a subjects and predicates.  I agree with everything in your essay.  In elementary school we learned grammar in a very systematic way.  We also learned to write somewhat systematically.  We developed proficiency with sentences, paragraphs, and then essays.  One helpful practice was diagramming sentences.  I loved it, because I thought of it as a puzzle.  It also helped with learning to think logically.  Did I succeed?

I <3 you Simcha!

(sorry… I had to do it!  I love this article!)

While I completely agree with your main point, I feel like I have to quibble with one detail.  Parts of the Bible actually are terribly written.  The epistles of Peter, particularly ... I mean, what would you expect from a barely-literate fisherman trying to write in Greek?  My Greek class used to joke that it was like reading giant scrawled crayon handwriting.  Obviously Peter was doing his best, but this wasn’t college-graduate writing.

It doesn’t detract from your main point though.  I used to teach ninth-grade grammar, and I spent a lot of time trying to drill into these kids’ heads how important grammar is!  Then I would get book reports with no capital letters in them all, and I’d just despair.

I was taught that the personal pronoun WHO is used for people and WHICH for other nouns collective or otherwise.

So, penultimate paragraph:.....a secular public WHICH thinks…..

I loved this post from the first two sentences onward.   
I have one thing to add: It is important to be articulate at any length. Many decry Twitter, but “tl;dr” (“Too long; didn’t read”) is a very real attitude even among literate people. Surely we’ve all seen the comment from the angry participant who simply copy-pasted from another Web site, or who wrote a lengthy diatribe, or something along the same lines. The same person, expressing the same opinions, would have been taken far more seriously in a shorter format. These tend, in my experience, to be taken just about as seriously as the ones that look like a badly abbreviated SMS message. Sometimes it pays to be laconic.
   
tl;dr: writing 2 long stuf sux 2 lol.
   
@Ricky: The way I learned it, “which” is for objects and maybe animals, but “who” is for people. The safest bet is probably “that,” which may be used in any of the above cases.

Great article!  Even if they did not get the basics in grade school and high school, which sadly happens in almost all public schools these days, a good college can pull things together.  Reading GOOD books is a great way for kids to learn their grammar, increase their vocabulary, while at the same time learing writing skills, and, if the book is REALLY good, some great, positive live lessons. Sadly, most of those great colleges are so expensive, our kids can not afford to go their, since we are not able to help them with the cost. Christ’s peace!  Judy

I think part of the problem is that books for children, among other activities, are dumbed down.

I think reading classics to children is a great idea, perhaps even a great antidote.

I am well-read, but when I first discovered GK Chesterton, his use of English was a serious challenge, and remains so.  I was embarassed.  Now, I just try to meet the challenge, re-read passages when I need to, and keep a dictionary handy!

My father, who is an electrical engineer and now works as a manager for the electric utility company, was once asked what he found to be the most practical/important class to take for his career. Now keep in mind making sure you understand voltage and power when you run a control station for the entire state is pretty darn important.  People can die of electric shock if they don’t follow certain protocol, hospitals might lose electricity, the list goes on.  Anyways, He responded confidently that the most important class he ever took was English.  It doesn’t do much good if you know something when you cannot communicate that knowledge to someone else.

Simcha,
As someone who achieved a B.A. in journalism in the 70’s and have lovingly appreciated well-crafted prose all my life, I reflect back to an advice of one of my professors: “Easy reading comes from hard writing.” And I would add proofreading and editing.

I will add my “amen” to others comments about the new technology and social media. I would highly recommend viewing the PBS series “Digital Nation” in which students not being able to put together complete thoughts or sentences because of distraction of smart phones, iPods, etc.

Regarding assembly instruction sheets, I recently had the “extreme pleasure” of assembling an IKEA cabinet. When I last assembled an IKEA item, there were written instructions plus illustrations that were relatively easy to follow. The latest instructions contained only illustrations - with no written instructions! I think I need to go to confession because I used multiple bad words throughout my frustrating experience!