Ears function when sound waves reach the eardrum, move and pass to the cochlea, and generate nerve impulse sent along the auditory nerve to the brain. If one’s ear or pair of ears isn’t working, she wouldn’t be able to tell her brain to concentrate on a particular sound.
A variety of conditions may also affect hearing: ear infections, which are the most common illness in infants and young children; tinnitus, which can be the result of loud noises; Meniere’s Disease, which may be the result of fluid problems in the inner ear; and ear barotrauma, which is caused by the changes in barometric (air) or water pressure.
How then could she still become the writer she has to be after a brain operation? The surgery, which was brought about by arteriovenous malformation (AVM), had happened 19 years ago but it affected her hearing in her right ear completely. How could she have the “ear for style” that reading specialist Joseph Pendleton of the Victor Valley College has described in the article "An Ear for Grammar and an Ear for Style"?
Writers only need to earn a high school degree, decide on a professional path, attend a traditional training program, complete an internship, and land a job to be one. They must have a Bachelor’s degree in English with an emphasis in writing or creative writing if they want to pen books, study literature, and pursue a graduate degree.
If they just want to learn the foundations of writing, though, they must have a Certificate. If they just want to write about marketing and online media, they must have an Associate degree in English.
They must have a Master’s degree, however, to be able to own a consulting firm and provide editing and copywriting services. They must also have a PhD to become academic researchers, technical writers, and teacher in universities and colleges.
In his article "What Does It Take To Be a Writer?” Mark O’Bannon opines, though, that writers are only required to have three things: passion, practice, and study. He also likened writers—authors, in particular—to athletes, engineers, musicians, and artists. “All these things require dedication and daily practice. Yes, some are born with great talent, but most people with talent rarely go anywhere without an equal measure of passion,” he had argued.
“Ear” for writing in English is necessary. Only through tapping into the logic of rhythm and structure can communication skills be improved. Writers must just think of commas as pauses in speech, use semi-colons to give readers a mental break, keep past-within-the-past scenarios loose but contained, listen for dashes, and test “me” versus “I” by eliminating the other person.
