Posted on 07/04/2005 2:15:59 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
States spend nearly a quarter of a billion dollars a year on remedial writing instruction for their employees, according to a new report that says the indirect costs of sloppy writing probably hurt taxpayers even more.
The National Commission on Writing, in a report to be released Tuesday, says that good writing skills are at least as important in the public sector as in private industry. Poor writing not only befuddles citizens but also slows down the government as bureaucrats struggle with unclear instructions or have to redo poorly written work.
"It's impossible to calculate the ultimate cost of lost productivity because people have to read things two and three times," said Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, vice chairman of the National Governors Association, which conducted the survey for the commission.
The commission, established by the College Board, drew attention with its first report in 2003. That outlined problems with how writing is taught in American schools and proposed remedies. The group's second report, last year, tried to drum up support for writing education by highlighting the value that business and industry leaders place on writing skills.
This year, the commission surveyed human resource directors who oversee nearly 2.7 million state government employees, and found writing skills even more important than in the private sector.
While two-thirds of companies surveyed in the 2004 report said writing was an important responsibility for workers, 100 percent of the 49 states responding to the anonymous survey said it was. More than 75 percent said they take writing skills into account when hiring.
But while 70 percent of state managers said large majorities of their professional employees had adequate skills, just one-third said clerical and support staff did. The report estimates the states spend $221 million annually on remedial writing training, sometimes sending workers to $400-per-employee classes.
"You have to be able to write, convert an idea and turn it into words," said Bob Kerrey, the former U.S. senator and governor from Nebraska, who is chairman of the commission.
In public office, "I read things that were absolutely incomprehensible," Kerrey said. He shudders to think how Thomas Jefferson's Declaration of Independence, published 229 years ago Monday, would have read in standard, government-worker bureaucrat-speak.
"It would be 10 times as long, one-tenth as comprehensive, and would have lacked all inspiration," Kerrey said.
In a conference call interview last week, Kerrey, Huckabee, and Gaston Caperton - a former West Virginia governor who now leads the College Board - said many of the costs when state employees cannot express themselves clearly are hard to pin down. E-mail, which is so easy that workers can fire something off without thinking it through, may compound the problem.
"Increasingly as more things are done electronically, or via e-mail or blackberry, I think we tend to almost get even more sloppy," Huckabee said. "The truth is we need to get clear and concise. That adds to productivity."
Another hidden cost is that good ideas may never see the light of day.
"I see that all the time in writing and political speaking," Huckabee said. "There are some really bright people who can't communicate and as a result their ideas probably aren't given the attention they deserve."
The commission is calling for more Congressional funding for the National Writing Project, a professional development program for teachers, and what Kerrey says are proven methods for improving writing instruction in classrooms.
But the biggest boost to writing instruction may come from the decision by the College Board, under Caperton, to add a written essay to the SAT college entrance exam. The essay, which debuted in March, is expected to cause many high school English teachers to put more emphasis on composition. Critics, however, say the essay is formulaic, coachable, and a poor way to test the kind of writing skills students need in college.
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On the Net
http://www.writingcommission.org/
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Here are a few I remember from his list (some are near duplicates of items on your list):
- If you use a foreign phrase per say, it is de rigor to spell it correctly.
- Mixed metaphors are a pain in the ass and should be thrown out the window.
- Eschew prolix and impenetrable obfuscation.
- Don't use colloquial stuff.
- Verb and subject number has to agree.
And one or two more from...well, modesty prevents me:
- Never verb a noun.
- Never use a noun in an adjective way.
I like that a lot, am going to copy it and print it out...
"I went to the beach with Jim and he." "They gave the presents to Robbie and I."
Oh, me too! Many people think it is always, always, always "Bob and I". Then, when you correctly say something like "Give the books to Bob and me", you get a scornful look. I've taken to saying things like "Give the books to me. And Bob."
Well, its about time somebody be teaching kid's about wear to put apostrophe's. Too many kids' sit in houses's all day long not reading their parents book's.
The old NatLamp was hilarious, wasn't it?
For some reason, this article has stuck in my mind all these years.
I bow to your superior writing skills.
Yes, this article and the frog leg jokes.
We've got boxes of old NatLamps in the attic that we were too stupid to preserve carefully.
The Ted Kennedy/Volkswagen ad's in one of them.
I keep hoping what's left of the Massachusetts Republican Party will resurrect it. I'd donate it to them, being an expatriate Masshole myself.
LAst Friday was E.B. Whites birthday.
I hope the dictionary doesn't give in and allow loose as an alternate spelling for lose. It hacks me off because I know a lot of people think that's how it is speled. Alos hugh for huge, and alot for a lot. How much IS a lot anyway?
White's. Does not take long to find perfect examples on this site, does it?????
The provincial idiots out here in central PA call a living room SUITE a SUIT. They spell and pronounce it SUIT.
Well, a suit is a matched set of clothes, not furniture,
Lebanon County dunderheads.....
sort of reminds me of the white trash who say, "The house needs painted"......
I had him to go up to the mega lo mart to look at a suit of furniture.
Here in Houston they spell it right but they do pronounce it "suit". But that "Had him to go" business drives me up a tree.
Course my barber is a coon-ass and a fella was going to Louisiana to go fishin' and he told the guy to tell the guide to "brought ya to where you could caught cha' some big 'uns, he'll know what you mean".
Sorry, I erred. I usually try to be more careful. :) I generallt proofread before I post. I try to be one of the good'uns. Except when I write in an illiterate manner intentionally, for humorous effect, which I was not attempting, in that post.
Curses! Caught in my own trap!
Cry havoc, and lose the dogs of war!
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