Rant of the Day

The New York Times has an intriguing op-ed piece about the importance of writing skills in the modern workplace.

I've spent much of my working life as the one in the office who covers for the others who can't write well. However, unlike the scenario presented in the article, my employers have never cared whether I could write when they hired me. Somewhere down the line, they find out I have a knack for effective written communication, and writing everyone's business correspondence becomes part of my job. I don't mind. I enjoy writing and I'm good at it.

The op-ed is right that people need more training in effective written communication, but not for the reasons it suggests. Employers do not see writing as a job skill. Touch typing is a skill. Operating Microsoft Word is a skill. Writing--well, if you can touch type and operate Word, you can write. At least that seems to be the majority opinion of employers. Formatting a business letter is a skill, but no one seems to prize the ability to compose that business letter in a clear, concise, interesting manner. People seem to believe that the ability to put words to a page, and to order those words into more or less proper sentences, is writing. Technically, that is correct. Of course, technically, my 14-month-old niece can speak, too, but no one is letting her deliver the keynote address to the board of directors.

If we took time to teach proper written communication, writing might finally be seen as the essential workplace skill that it is, and as something society values. People do not value what they do not have; if they valued it, they would take the time to acquire it. As it stands now, most people have no idea how atrocious their writing is, and I've seen some truly awful writing come from some people in high positions. Now, if the person on the other side of the interview table has gotten to where he or she is with only mediocre writing ability and doesn't even know how mediocre those abilities are, what are the chances that he or she is going to value better writing skills in a new hire? What are the chances that he or she will even consider written communication skills in the interview process?

The reason we need to teach written communication more is not to produce better writers, but to increase the value writing has in society.