How to improve your writing skills How to improve your writing skills (September 24, 2004)

by Jeb Bing

U sually when we hear of someone having trouble with writing, we think of grammar school and the need for a first or second grade teacher to lend a hand. But for Paul Hermis, the problem is much more advanced with those needing help holding college degrees in engineering, business and many other disciplines (journalism excepted, we hope). Hermis is the manager of the Las Positas College's Business Development Center, a post-graduate career development program that offers opportunities for local businesses to partner with the community college district. Much of the Center's work is to provide on-the-job training in such fields as welding, soldering and other skills no longer taught in public schools and hard to find in today's job market. Moving into the white collar workforce, the Center also offers leadership and supervisory training for rank and file employees who are more frequently moving into these positions off the production floor and have never had this kind of training. In many companies, Human Resources and other in-house capabilities have been downsized or eliminated and no longer provide these services. That has made the Business Development Center a valuable resource that both the private and public sectors pay for to have the training and continuing education on site during business hours.

What's surprising and turning into a new and unexpected profit center for Hermis' team is a marked increase in the need to work with young management and key supervisory personnel to improve their writing skills. As companies downsize, more of the communications between companies and other organizations and their customers and clientele come from recent high school and college graduates, including an increasing number who just don't know how to spell or even structure a sentence. At times, Hermis says it's so bad that e-mails, memos and basic reports are almost undecipherable. They may convey the meaning of the message, but the writing is so messy that those trying to read it give up or come away with a sour opinion of the company and organization sending it. Hermis has seen police and fire reports, for example, tossed in the wastebasket by judges and department captains who want the writer to take the time to explain what they mean in person. Executives tell Hermis that they are appalled at the inability of some of their otherwise most enterprising and promising junior management people to convey their views and recommendations in writing. It's almost as if clear, concise, accurate writing is becoming a lost art in school at a time written electronic communications by e-mail, text messaging and formal documents attached to files are replacing one-on-one sales and even management communications.

Hermis believes that the problem starts in the lower grades, where educators are elevating the academic requirements starting with kindergarten. More intense teaching demands and the growing number of assessment and other tests have also reduced the time teachers can spend helping their students improve handwriting and grammar skills. As students advance to larger class sizes and to college, teachers are more likely to judge students on how well they understand the subject and convey their thoughts than on how they spell or punctuate their papers. It's not so important how you spell Alan Greenspan's name in Economics 101, for instance, as how you explain his interest rate policies. But once out of college, a person's report with Greenspan misspelled and with poorly structured sentences serves as a distraction for a corporate manager who views them as devaluating the entire report. In a courtroom or boardroom, these kinds of poorly written communications can make a difference in today's highly competitive and communications-savvy environment where success often depends on the written word.

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