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December 7, 2004 10:11 AM PST
What corporate America can't build: A sentence
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In part because of e-mail, millions are writing more frequently on the job. Many are making a hash of it.
The New York Times
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The culprit at the crux of this matter is the Public School System.
Children ought to be taught correct language skills early on. They are taught wrong since 3rd grade on and they graduate not even knowing the abbreviations of our states!
I am in contact and co-work with recent high school graduates and after listening to them speak, not to mention how they write, makes me wonder why they graduated. In our town post graduate classes were being taught to recent high school seniors on how to fill out job applications!
I graduated in 1962 (no further eduaction) and I know for certain that these graduates would still be in school. You mention that talking skills aren't that vital. I beg to differ since by the manner in which they speak you can immediately tell they are not going to spell correctly.
All those millions of dollars being paid by corporations to all those private agencies to teach their employees correct writing skills ought to be donated to the public school system with the caveat that well qualified teachers be hired to teach the basics: reading, writing and mathematics.
Everything is very lax today with so many 'I'll sue you' etc hanging over teachers' heads and the fact that they don't have the same authority in their classroom as in my time must be a huge disappointment; Maybe their 'passing' of the students from grade to grade is their revenge.
Thank you for taking time to listen to me.
Mariateresa Todd
aka: Scottie
Nogales, Arizona
The education system certainly has failures, although most students are able to complete their homework assignments using proper english with little problem. Personally, I assign most of the blame to laziness and a lack of typing skill. Too many people are simply taking keyboard shortcuts. (LoL, IMO, FWIW, ..., etc.) Unnecessary acronyms are sloppy, lazy, unsophisticated, and definitely NOT intelligent sounding. I wonder why self-proclaimed "geeks" use this form of communication.
not even knowing the abbreviations of our states!"
"I beg to differ since by the manner in which they speak you can
immediately tell they are not going to spell correctly."
Word useage is important.
Using words "wrong" is bad. People should use words correctly.
Should read:
"Considering how highly educated our people are, many WON'T write clearly in their day-to-day work."
It's pure laziness. Few people will take the time to write in coherent paragraphs. You're lucky if you get complete sentences.
People are just too lazy to write in full sentences. You should see some of the tech support contacts I receive! Half the time I have to reply by asking them what they heck they're talking about!
Is it too difficult to give an email a quick once over to be sure it's clear before sending it?
Unfortunately for your neighbours to the north, the influencing trend in this country has us racing down the same path.
You have elected a man to the Whitehouse who is known for mangling the language. What kind of message does that send to the younger generations?
S. Clelland
Toronto,Ontario
Get over it, the election's over. Nothing in this article didnt also apply to email in the Clinton years.
Good education is a bipartisan issue. Apparently there are many here who devalue education in favor of political imperialism.
Your point, Toronto, is well-taken.
Unfortunately for your neighbours to the north, the influencing trend in this country has us racing down the same path.
You have elected a man to the Whitehouse who is known for mangling the language. What kind of message does that send to the younger generations?
S. Clelland
Toronto,Ontario
She names a Russian author -- who wrote in Russian -- when making the point, presumably, that companies seek not a perfect English grammarian, but someone with an adequate control of the English language. Tolstoy is her example of a "perfect" English writer; is this thing on?
communication. Inflating messages with extra words is another
serious problem. Use simple messages that every idiot can
understand. Managers will not be impressed when employees try
to write poetic memos.
"Corporations seek not to employ those who overtly assimilate
insincere dialect throughout public communication; assimilation
of simplistic dialect which conveys unambiguous perception is
far superior."
One of the problems with business writing is that people don?t re-read their writing to catch their own mistakes.
The combination of laziness and an inflated sense that cooperation means conformism, that failure is okay, has lead us to this language of nitwits.
That blame is passed among parents, schools, teachers, unions, finally dumping on society, without apparent improvement makes me suspect we're complaining about one symptom of deeper ills.
It would seem that people think proof reading will take precious minutes off their day when in fact it can save a lot of time and and avoid a lot of hassle if there is a miscommunication. Better to take the time before rather than having to do damage control after.
allowed every Tom, Dick and Harry in the office to write letters without going through the old channel--the department secretary! I WAS the
department secretary many times, and I prevented all kinds of horrible mistakes from getting out. I made my bosses look good. Most of them
couldn't write to save their lives. Now that they have email, everyone else knows it, too! That's the problem--not that people suddenly can't write anymore (although it's partly that, due to poor education). But the main problem is that there's no filter on it anymore. And now we all know that the emperor has no clothes!
Kids and the text messaging make it cool to use the shorthand they created because of the limitations of the text message system.
Most people cannot be bothered to even read much less write anything correctly.
It is very sad.
This is a real problem for business because if their employees can't write what does that say about their reading and communication skills? Poor communication skills affect an employee's ability to follow directions, make plans and provide customer service. This is not a good recipe for success.
I think that part of e-mail problem was started by a bunch of "wet behind the ears" IT types who were raised on video games and Instant Messaging. Who says it is impolite to "CAPITALIZE" ? Taking advice on communication skills from types who hide behind monitors and technical jargon seems pretty funny.
I have a solution to the problem. Make new-hires write a few paragraphs on something simple like how to make a hamburger. If they fail, find someone else. If you find that your employees need remedial training I would look real hard at replacing the people who hired them. Real soon the message would get out that your company is only interested in people who are professional.
Now if we could just get rid of Powerpoint..
Excuse me? I'm a IT type. My ears are not wet and my nose doesn't run. My communication skills seem to be just fine.
Point the blame where it belongs. Laziness.
You could not have said it any more succinctly! This is one of the reasons so many companies are failing at the service game. Communication is a critical element of training. Without good training, how in the world can any enterprise go forward?
The rules of language change according to context. For example, speech is much more flexible than writing. Nobody expects you to always speak in full sentences, etc. You don't need to be so strict with your structure because you can adequately convey your intention through tone.
Written language lacks tone (duh), so one relies on appropriate formatting (as well as the hope that the reader can appreciate and understand their style).
CAPITALIZATION IS IMPOLITE BECAUSE IT ASSAULTS YOUR SENSES!!!
Didn't that assault yours? Formatting (bold, italic, underlining, capitalisation, etc.) is used for emphasis because it contrasts with the rest of the text. When you type an entire sentence in capital letters, it implies a harder tone (more emphasis) and affronts the reader.
Of course, this should be common sense, it's just a pity that the "wet ears" need to remind some people...
Don't blame IT types. Where do you think they got their education in the first place?
We also need to deep-six spelling and grammar checkers.
Because we as a nation have, collectively, de-emphasized the importance of education and its many adjuncts (including oral and written communication, various forms of quantitative analysis and creative problem solving) in favor of simply making trainloads of money and becoming famous and powerful, we're all paying the price - in terms of wasted time, or mistakes that need to be later corrected - all of which comes out of our wallets at some point.
Education simply is not "hip" in 21st-century America. TV networks like ESPN (much less the five broadcast networks) do not clamor to cover academic tournaments - demonstrations of academic knowledge. And, while the recent success of Ken Jennings on "Jeopardy!" may sound like it shines a spotlight on the virtues of education, it really is more of a demonstration of information recall on a prodigious scale. A "Jeopardy!" player may know the year some Yankees pitcher threw a no-hitter in some given decade, but could he/she write a business letter that could gain the respect of the reader ... and provoke the reader to take action, were it warranted?
American culture needs to start highlighting education again. Lots of jocks and "popular kids" out there would probably roll their eyes or groan at me for saying this, but getting excited about education and learning is not impossible. It's ironic to me that we are one of the most technologically advanced nations in the industrialized free world, yet our millions of students consistently place behind other countries in math, science and writing.
I think we as a nation should try to form a partnership between our better educators, graphic artists, and writers (so much wit and genius are going to waste because people don't see the value in writers) and find a way to make education and learning appealing and desirable again. We have the skills base to collectively communicate to students and others who want to learn - let's start using it.
Maybe after such an effort most Americans would be able to write an essay like this one.
I also think there is a strong attitude that because it is e-mail and because everyone wants everything in a hurry that the niceties of proper spelling and writing are to be ignored as time wasting. I am also willing to bet that many bosses and employers give them same impression to their employees, which is why we have employees doing the job of 5 people instead of one.
I wish this article had given some resources for people to check out. I don't think I do to bad in the writing department but I know I could stand some improvement.
Someone also pointed to the public schools and I couldn't agree more. I don't think the education that kids get is worth beans and I don't think the way schools are setup and run help either. Classrooms are too big, their aren't enough teachers assistants. If the student can't keep up with the teachers pace the student is labeled as a special needs child and basically there is very little time for the student to say I don't understand, I need more help, Your not explaining it in a way I can wrap my head around or anything else.
Robert
Actually as an young IT professional who went to public school recently (but was luckily self-educated with a well above average intelligence and managed to get through it with some bit of common sense left) I can attest to the true cause of the failure of public education.
The problem is not that those that cant keep up are labeled "special needs" and dumped into the "hopeless causes" bin, its that the teachers are ordered to pass all their students by bringing the pace and content down to the level of the slowest child. If the kid who doesnt care enough to try to understand it doesnt get it, then the rest of the class is brought down to his learning speed which is, in effect, nil.
I learned basic math in 1st grade (though I already knew it), I was then taught it again in second grade and again in third grade and again over and over for the next 9 years and they wonder why the smart kids dont see the point in school and get so bored with it they just want to find a way to self-induce a coma so they dont have to do it anymore.
That is the main problem with the school system. The teachers arent allowed to teach those that are willing to learn, they are forced by threat of loss of their job to coddle the kids who dont want to learn while the rest are forced to twiddle their thumbs, are being "taught" the same things they learned the year before each year and are generally intellectually neglected.
In short the smart kids who want to learn are being punished and denied that because they have a kid in the class who has special needs but their parents wont allow it and threaten to sue the school if they dont teach their child in normal classes (then the school board adds to that threat by forcing the teachers to pass all their students, whether they learned the material or not).
I'm a student, a kid, and I write better than that in e-mails. Even to my friends, I do my best to make it readable, and to my teachers, I try even harder to make it sound business like.
If your e-mails are to your superiors or colleages you should really do your best to make it sound as proffessional as possible or as a former english teacher of mine liked to say, "They're going to think you're an idiot."
Treat e-mails as though you're writing a friendly letter. Don't say stuff like:
OMG, dis is SOOOOOO COOOOLL!!!!!1!!!!
I seriously get this stuff on IMs...
I actually have almost perfect grammar and punctuation over even IM, and my friends say I'm ridiculous...maybe they're right...but I know I'm right about one thing. Spending 3.1 billion dollars on remedial training for adults on writing is just ridiculous! I found this article a bit scary to say the least...I just hope the next generation can learn from this one's mistakes.
Sincerely,
Pretty Sammy
P.S. I don't want to make it seem like adults are idiots. They aren't! Don't reply saying that I'm just a stupid kid who doesn't know what she's talking about! ^_^;;;
Perhaps you should investigate your English teacher's credentials.....
The issue of homonyms comes to mind. It seems few people really have a grasp on even the most basic of these. I'm thinking in particular of "Their vs. they're vs. there", "your vs. you're", "its vs. it's" and "Loose vs. lose". Sound familiar?
Back 10 years ago, I noticed a serious problem on Usenet when I conducted an unofficial count of how many times people had written "loose" instead of "lose"; I ended up with 84 instances in a row before I gave up in disgust.
English is not my mother tongue (it's one of 5 languages), and yet I always managed to be in the top 3 students in my English classes. It is sad to see so many people who have English as their mother tongue (with no other option) and yet are only able to write at an elementary level.
I take pride in what I write, and as such I like to proofread my emails or chats at least once prior to submitting. It doesn't matter to me who the recipient is (be they a friend or a professional contact) because what I write reflects strongly on how the other party perceives me. Very often I get emails that look like they were written by a 7 year old child, and I have a hard time taking them seriously. It's the old adage of "Garbage In Garbage Out". Unfortunately, this literary garbage is clogging up the net and corrupting young children who no longer see the importance of mastering English.
Regards,
Pradeep (Toronto)
But try to think about from different angle. All languages we
used to communicate are tuned to be spoken languages.
Internet had thrown into the mix many other aspects: number of
characters in message, how hard is it ti type, how hard is it to
read, etc.
As for me, all problems we see today with spoken languages on
Net, are not caused by illiteracy of users. It is problem, but of
different kind: languages are transforming and bending under
weight of requirements of new communication ways: IM, e-mail,
SMS, web logs, etc.
- America can't build a sentence
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by
December 13, 2004 2:42 PM PST
- I work for a well-known high-tech company in Sunnyvale, CA. and agree with this article only to an extent. I believe the reason that most emails contain incoherent sentences, poor grammar, and misunderstood messages in them is due to the fact that English is a second language for the majority of employees. Particularly the Asian employees. Germans, not so much. This is just a reality we must face in multinational companies. It is a language barrier and it does cause bottlenecks, but what can we do?
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See all 59 Comments >>Personally, I think it is annoying. If you ever had to work closely with people from another country for over 8 weeks you would think so too.