Harlan BridgesConsultant, Coach, Trainer, Speaker, Program Manager, Project Manager| EntrepreneurSeguin, Tx, United States
Are grammar, spelling and writing skills important?
I am amazed at how poor our grammar, spelling and writing skills have become in the last twenty years. Has anyone else seen this trend or am I seeing something not there? I am specifically talking about native language speakers.
Once upon a time, in the days of old before the great economic crisis gave companies the world over the perfect excuse to freeze all new hires, thereby saving a few bucks short-term in exchange for sacrificing quality in the long run, I was allowed to recruit people.
I'll be frank: I read cover letters first, and résumés second. And often, I don't even need to get to the résumé. Obvious typos get an immediate ban: if a candidate is too lazy to run the spell checker, then what do you expect he will do on the job? I can overlook some of the less obvious mistakes, since let's face it, the average manager wouldn't pick up on them either. Poor writing skills aren't limited to job seekers...
Anyway, as a general rule of thumb, if I ever end up scratching my head, even for a moment, trying to figure out what someone was trying to say, then no, I wouldn't hire them. In our line of work, there are already plenty of occasions to misunderstand things, I wouldn't bring on board people who would only add to the confusion with their poor grasp on the basics of communication. Saving Changes...
Mark Price PerryBusiness Driven PMO Evangelist| BOT InternationalOrlando, Fl, United States
Harlan, great post and reply by Julien. Setting aside the various social sites and blogosphere in which many folks, myself included, hastily pen out a reply over a few free minutes during an otherwise crowded calendar day and with a few typos, the formal writing skills that we see in business today do not seem to be up to par with past standards and expectations. Just last night, I was surprised to see one after another, not just typos, but wrong words and phrases used in the running banner of a major broadcast news network. While I would not necessarily jump to the conclusion that poor writing is usually poor thinking, my experience has been that good writing is usually good thinking. Saving Changes...
Don KimPROJECT-TO-PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT EXPERT| Seeking opportunitiesSacramento, CA, United States
In general, I have to agree with you Harlan as I've seen some pretty bad grammar being used in my correspondence with people both on a professional and personal basis.
Being that we are project management professionals and that the majority of our success lies in how well we communicate, it seems one in this position would work to maintain high competency in writing and speaking since these two are the means through which we communicate vital information with our teams and stakeholders.
Unfortunately, I have witnessed the same issues you bring up. Interestingly, I felt the same way a few weeks back and wrote in detail about it on my site:
I agree with this post whole heartedly but one aspect we should consider, is time.
As Mark Twain said “I didn't have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.”
When doing my Uni degree I found the hardest assignments were the 500 words ones!
There really is no excuse for bad grammar, but in this rushed and busy world we may want to give some latitude to people. Saving Changes...
Elizabeth HarrinDirector| RebelsGuideToPM.comLondon, England, United Kingdom
I agree with what most people have put here. I write for a living and I'm amazed at how many websites I see with poor grammar and spelling. I'm not immune to making mistakes myself, but when you see emails and websites with several glaring errors you do have to question whether the individual or company cares about quality.
When I've mentioned this to other people I've sometimes heard that they don't care - as long as they get the message across, that's fine, and they'll be judged on their work results. Frankly, I wouldn't give work to people who have this attitude, but I am a bit of a stickler for good communication skills, since that's my job.
I think that you should notice the meaning and the message, not the mistakes, and that's why grammar, spelling and writing skills are important. Don't even get me started on apostrophes... Saving Changes...
Wayne MackRetired| RetiredSouth Riding, Va, United States
I think the answer depends upon the position and the degree of grammar challenges. One must also accept that grammar is quite subjective and that people often disagree over the definitions of improper grammar. Read the letters to the editor in any major newspaper and one will see several grammar debates per year.
For technical staff, I set the bar at the ability to be clearly understood. If the writer can communicate an idea clearly despite poor grammar, then the writer can perform his job. It may limit advancement, but clear communication of technical information is sufficient.
For technical leads and management staff in written documentation, I expect no spelling errors or grammatical errors that can be caught with a spelling checker or grammar checker. For quick e-mail responses, I accept basic spelling errors, mixed tenses, subject-verb disagreements, etc.
When reviewing a resume, I expect all to use basic word processing tools to provide a grammatically "correct" document. If need be, the writer should have the resume written by a skilled writer. This would be my expectation for any future formal writing that this person might need to do.
Saving Changes...
Wayne StriderVice President| Strider & Cline Inc.Kansas City, Mo, United States
No. I don't like the anxiety of trying to guess what the person really intended to say or write. Saving Changes...
Wai Mun KooPMO Director| Intergraph PP&MSingapore, Singapore
In a way, this can be interpreted from both the attitude and aptitude aspects. I have higher tolerance for aptitude issue than attitude problem. Like what Julien said, some basic typo errors are caused by attitude problem - being lazy to even check. Saving Changes...
Akash BaliyanProject Leader| Cyient LimitedBaghpat, Uttar Pradesh, India
I believe writing skills are also most important, a good writing is also a part of communication. Even if we ignore the grammar skills, writing skills, it may have impact. I have seen that many companies are promoting the communication skills where grammar also plays its part. We cannot make other person to guess about your intention to say or write. Saving Changes...
