If I had a dollar for every time someone told me he or she has difficulty communicating in writing, I’d have . . . a lot of dollars. When I ask why, the response is invariably the same: “I just don’t understand writing, and English, and grammar, and all that stuff.” For some reason, people seem to think that knowing “all that stuff” is necessary for learning to write well.Who knows all the rules, the meanings of all the terms, the linguistic foundations of writing strategies? Think about the people who have tried to teach you “all that stuff.” You will probably recall high school English teachers. You might think about college ...