I've long been disturbed at the inability of many kids, teens and adults to write comprehensibly.

It's a poor reflection on American education that cogent writing is increasingly regarded as some esoteric specialty, like programming in Perl. The state of our popular culture is a factor as well, with its emphasis on flash and immediacy. Many businesses are discovering that vital communications via e-mail are increasingly garbled because of poor writing skills, costing time and money. Certainly employees are rushed and overworked, which adds to the problem. But fuzzy "messaging" just makes more work.

Here's Sam Dillon, writing in today's New York Times (free reg. req.) on "What Corporate America Can't Build: A Sentence."

R. Craig Hogan, a former university professor who heads an online school for business writing....received an anguished e-mail message recently from a prospective student.

"i need help," said the message, which was devoid of punctuation. "i am writing a essay on writing i work for this company and my boss want me to help improve the workers writing skills can yall help me with some information thank you".

Hundreds of inquiries from managers and executives seeking to improve their own or their workers' writing pop into Dr. Hogan's computer in-basket each month, he says, describing a number that has surged as e-mail has replaced the phone for much workplace communication. Millions of employees must write more frequently on the job than previously. And many are making a hash of it.

"E-mail is a party to which English teachers have not been invited," Dr. Hogan said. "It has companies tearing their hair out."

A recent survey of 120 American corporations reached a similar conclusion. The study, by the National Commission on Writing, a panel established by the College Board, concluded that a third of employees in the nation's blue-chip companies wrote poorly and that businesses were spending as much as $3.1 billion annually on remedial training.

That's some cost. So this isn't just some nitpick-y, judgemental, elitist thing, apparently.

"It's not that companies want to hire Tolstoy," said Susan Traiman, a director at the Business Roundtable, an association of leading chief executives whose corporations were surveyed in the study. "But they need people who can write clearly, and many employees and applicants fall short of that standard."

Millions of inscrutable e-mail messages are clogging corporate computers by setting off requests for clarification, and many of the requests, in turn, are also chaotically written, resulting in whole cycles of confusion.

Here is one from a systems analyst to her supervisor at a high-tech corporation based in Palo Alto, Calif.: "I updated the Status report for the four discrepancies Lennie forward us via e-mail (they in Barry file).. to make sure my logic was correct It seems we provide Murray with incorrect information ... However after verifying controls on JBL - JBL has the indicator as B ???? - I wanted to make sure with the recent changes - I processed today - before Murray make the changes again on the mainframe to 'C'."

The incoherence of that message persuaded the analyst's employers that she needed remedial training.

"The more electronic and global we get, the less important the spoken word has become, and in e-mail clarity is critical," said Sean Phillips, recruitment director at another Silicon Valley corporation, Applera, a supplier of equipment for life science research, where most employees have advanced degrees. "Considering how highly educated our people are, many can't write clearly in their day-to-day work."

....Even C.E.O.'s (Ed. - note to author: does that apostrophe really belong there?) need writing help, said Roger S. Peterson, a freelance writer in Rocklin, Calif., who frequently coaches executives. "Many of these guys write in inflated language that desperately needs a laxative," Mr. Peterson said, and not a few are defensive. "They're in denial, and who's going to argue with the boss?"

Now that guy's a real phrasemaker!

I'll bang an old drum here, one I'm not about to stop thumping. At home, kids need to read books much more than play computer or video games. And put a lid on instant messaging right from the git-go. If your pre-teen is in a school where status depends on belonging to an instant messaging "buddy" network, you need to sit down and have a long talk about why you're saying "No" to that, and all it represents. Little decisions have cumulative impacts on the development of literacy skills.

We are too often seduced by our culture without even realizing it.

Posted by Matt Rosenberg at December 7, 2004 08:39 AM

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