The title of this chapter indicates the point of view of the yearbook committee toward such matters as spelling, handwriting, grammar, and punctuation. Mastery of such tools is very important to a speaker or writer because it helps to free his mind of fears that his message may not be clearly understood or that errors in the expression of his message may cause his hearers or readers to doubt the competence of the author and therefore to attach little or no importance to what he is trying to say.

Critical comments about the teaching of English are frequently heard in social or business groups. Often the speaker is ready too with a sure remedy. It may be a technique long ago found ineffective or one which is obviously not practical. The frequency and nature of such casual comments and the agreement they provoke among the listeners are startling evidences of the failure of the schools to interpret to the public their aims, the practical problems involved in securing desired outcomes, and pertinent facts about their results.