CornerScribe

Illiteracy in corporate communications

I read this article this morning and was reminded of my years teaching English to college freshmen. Need I say, it wasn’t really a pleasant reminder?

I’m still surprised at how poorly people write — even people who are well-educated. What’s even more surprising is that many people are convinced that writing ability just doesn’t matter. I can’t count the students who have come to me and explained that they didn’t need to know what I was teaching because they were going to be ________ (insert profession here).

Even though I did my best to convince them that writing skills, or the lack thereof, could profoundly affect their careers, more often than not it had little effect. My fear is that they learned the need for communication skills the hard way.

Comments? As writers (and readers), what do you think about the state of communications in business, schools, etc.