By Corinne Hayward
We’ve noticed a real decline in the quality of business writing. Before you think “Okay, Boomer, who cares?,” you should think about how damaging mistakes can be to your brand. Do you want to send your kids to a school where there’s an error on the welcome banner? Do you want to trust your money to a bank that ends their emails with “k Thnx! 😉”? Have you ever had a miscommunication in your office that could have been avoided if the email had been worded more clearly? Writing skills matter, so why are they being treated like they are unimportant?
The email on the screen above captures many of the business writing mistakes people should avoid in the workplace:
Subject Line: NEED YOUR HELP!!!!
Hey Girl!!
Heres that reprot you wanted! Let me know if you have any Qs!Get back too me soon!
Thnx!
LOL – I almost forgot the attachment again!!!! 😃😃😃😃
Blessings!
Now, you may be thinking, “These kids today just don’t know how to write.” And you’re not wrong. Writing skills aren’t being taught the same way they once were. But while young people just joining the workforce face some challenges when it comes to writing, they aren’t the only ones. Have you ever gotten an email from an older coworker that came across really rude when they aren’t that way in person? It’s probably because they never learned that there’s some etiquette considerations regarding emails. And young people definitely aren’t the only ones who let typos slide. We’ve all become so reliant on technology that we forget that the most important tool is our own eyes. Yes, spell-check and grammar improving software are great, but they can’t write the email or report for you. If you trust the computer to fix your mistakes, errors are going to slip through the cracks.
Here are the top reasons that business writing is on the decline:
It’s not being taught
That’s about as simple as it can be. If students aren’t being taught how to write, of course they’re going to have problems with doing it well once they join the workforce. According to Education Week, students are rarely asked to write anything longer than short answer in both middle and high school. The ability to communicate a complex idea in writing is a skill that isn’t being developed in schools.
We rely too heavily on technology
Spell-check doesn’t know if you meant to write “right” instead of “write”. Both are spelled correctly. It did its job. It can’t fix problems that it doesn’t know you’re having. You need to proofread your own work, and if it’s particularly important, you should have someone else read it. No one is perfect, and we all make mistakes. Taking the time to proofread your work can save you from sharing those mistakes with others.
Our attention spans aren’t what they once were
The amount of time that people spend reading has been on the decline for years. Reading and writing go hand in hand. Here’s a study showing the drop off in reading over the years and how it ties to writing. If you spend all of your time reading and writing tweets that max out at 270 characters, are you surprised that it’s a challenge to formulate a more complex idea and present it in a defined argument?
Who has the time?
We live in a world where we need everything right now. Everyone is busy, and most of us have too much on our plates. We have priorities and often times, making sure that an email is right before it goes out isn’t top of the list. But it should be. If you take the extra minute to read over what you wrote, you can save yourself so much time and effort in the long run. One of my favorite quotes is by John Wooden – “If you don’t have time to do it right, when are you going to have time to do it over?”
All of this is to say, if you want to be more desirable when looking for a job or you want to excel in the job you have, the way you present yourself and your brand matters.
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