Is Writing A Skill Or A Natural Talent?
The battle between nature and nurture.
Whenever I see a well-written article, I often wonder how the writer became so good. Quite often, I simply conclude that good writing can be attributed to two things: consistency and natural talent.
The truth is, we’ve all had varying experiences as writers. For some, it’s a perfect flow of ideas and for others, it’s a matter of steady improvement over time.
Now, the question is: What makes a good writer? Is it one who is taught to write or another who was born with a natural talent to do so.
Simply put, are writers born or made?
Writing: A talent or a skill?
The age-old debate whether writing is a talent or skill keeps recurring because while some people write because it comes naturally to them, others became writers through wilful learning.
In distinguishing between “talent” and “skill”, the Cambridge dictionary defines talent as “a natural ability to be good at something, especially without being taught”, while it describes a skill as “ a particular ability that you develop through training and experience...”
The presence of an innate ability is what distinguishes talent from skill. Indeed, there are different…
