Posted on 12/07/2004 12:34:40 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
Why do I suppose that there are ANY NUMBER of FReepers who could offer their services, no doubt quite profitably, to these beleaguered corporations?
seriesly!
me rights emale reel good
Even more FReepers could benefit from these courses.
Agreed.
For starters, why don't you put a period after "problem" and capitalize the I in "it's"? (Two sentences should not be separated by a comma.)
And a very Merry Christmas to you!
BTW, and just for fun, do you happen to know the 'Inverse Screaming Rule', as regards BBS, forum, and e-mail communications?
I don't understand why the semicolon gets no respect anymore; it's such a handy tool..
Writing skills are not the only thing missing from corporate America. Common courtesy is gone, too.
I believe it is about attention span. The average American seems to have the attention span of a five-year-old.
Being able to write clearly and type it out quickly certainly is an advantage for me career-wise. I've been in offices of vice-presidents, watching them painfully "hunt and peck" at their keyboards, trying to keep up with the email. The virtual elimination of personal secretaries in our corporate culture has exposed a lot of poor writing skills in upper management.
I wonder how this NEA Dumbed-downer will vote?
I am probably pouring gasoline on a fire, but the best writing I have ever seen was an H1-B engineer from India. While I could barely understand him when he spoke without getting dizzy, reading his technical reports and proposals was humbling to this English speaker! He had a PhD, and obviously came from a family who were not exactly living in a grass hut- But wherever he went to school, they taught the King's English.
It was not only humbling to read his writings, it was frightening, when one considers that he is competing for American jobs. He liked it here, and became a citizen.
I was going to say the same thing. A semicolon is a great way to connect two independent but related clauses.
The increasing use of email simply exposes a problem that already existed.
Because I can understand most emails without a problem. Why ? They resemble the vernacular.
Get off your high horse and join the proles.
BUMP
The worst communicators, easily, are the Big Guys. Especially those who once had the luxury of secretaries writing all their communications (in fact, many of them have gone back to having the secretaries clean up their prose).
i aint gots no goods book learnens
I experienced the same thing during my glorious career in big business. I think its a combination of time and fear of being nailed down to something in writing. I finally came to the conclusion that email is a short sweet and to the point medium, not necessarily a vehicle for detailed communications. I found the phone to be more effective when there was a need for detailed conversation. Black writing on white background can become overwhelming, and can also mislead the writer's intent because you can't hear him speak. I also believe that voice inflections go a long way toward establishing a good working relationship. I used to receive and take part in these long strings of email with ccs to the world which then took on tangential lives of their own and could often be misconstrued or supportive of someone's negative agenda.
I would follow the phone conversation if necessary with a short sweet and to the point email only to the person I talked with. Sure helped avoid lots of acrimony and confusion.
Another thing I noticed is that as the company I worked for became more diverse, lower communications skill sets came into play. I had one africanhyphenamerican who worked for me who proudly proclaimed to anyone who would listen that he "be havin' fo degrees" all of which, apparently, were related to the ebonics language.
Is there a spelling nazi ping list? :)
Semicolon polyps.
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