nothing, and lots of it

There was an interesting post at Kuro5hin the other day, by a high school student wondering why he couldn't just keep a weblog to learn the finer points of english and grammar. I've found that practice does indeed make perfect. If I had to point to one thing that allows me to write well today in comparison with my college-aged self, it'd have to be email. After seven years of churning out thousands of words a day, I've grown a lot as a writer. Keeping a weblog here and with MetaFilter has also helped, especially in terms of learning how to make a point and structure an argument. Maybe blogs have a place in education, I know just the daily act of writing has immensely helped with expressing myself.