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Why So Many Americans Can’t Communicate
Bob Weinstein is a journalist who covers technology, project management, the workplace and career development.
Ever consider why millions of Americans haven’t mastered rudimentary communication skills? Please tell me the answer, because I’m baffled. All I know is that it’s become a tired and lazy theme. Two decades ago, employers were talking about job candidates--many of whom were very smart--lacking communication skills. And they’re still complaining about this.
They weren’t just talking about recent high school or college grads, but experienced professionals who had trouble spitting out declarative sentences during interviews. And their written skills were equally atrocious. Resumes were strewn with grammatical errors and poor sentence structure.
The advent of spelling-and-grammar-checking programs didn’t remedy the problem, either. Often, spelling and grammar checks are wrong, because hundreds of English words have multiple meanings. Worst of all, it didn’t teach users anything; it just made them dependent upon yet another technology.
All these writing and editing gadgets made it easier to get through tedious communication tasks quickly. While they can be useful, they never should be taken as gospel, but as a helpful aide. Documents, letters, papers and resumes still have to be meticulously edited. That means not line by line, but word by word--a process most people avoid like the plague.
A decade ago, …
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The only people who find what they are looking for in life are the fault finders. - Foster's Law |