What Corporate America Can't Build: a Sentence

[Rose Siding]

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. - R. Craig Hogan, a former university professor who heads an online school for business writing here, received an anguished e-mail message recently from a prospective student.

"i need help," said the message, which was devoid of punctuation. "i am writing a essay on writing i work for this company and my boss want me to help improve the workers writing skills can yall help me with some information thank you".

Hundreds of inquiries from managers and executives seeking to improve their own or their workers' writing pop into Dr. Hogan's computer in-basket each month, he says, describing a number that has surged as e-mail has replaced the phone for much workplace communication. Millions of employees must write more frequently on the job than previously. And many are making a hash of it.
........
A recent survey of 120 American corporations reached a similar conclusion. The study, by the National Commission on Writing, a panel established by the College Board, concluded that a third of employees in the nation's blue-chip companies wrote poorly and that businesses were spending as much as $3.1 billion annually on remedial training.

The problem shows up not only in e-mail but also in reports and other texts, the commission said.

http://nytimes.com/2004/12/07/business/07write.html?hp&ex=1102395600&en=31fc1bb1999831d4&ei=5094&partner=homepage

[autorank]

1. Two sentences for corporate America.

CORPORATE AMERICA controls the media and we get MANUFACTURED NEWS.
CORPORATE AMERICA now controls the voting machines and we get MANUFACTURED ELECTIONS.

[roguevalley]

2. Another one: Corporate America, bite me. There. I used a comma.

[Menshevik]

3. Not surprising

Try reading some essays that business majors write for their college classes...yikes.

[Journeyman]

4. Isn't it great?. . .

It is for me, because quite a few of them pay me a lot of money to make them look good in print.

[distantearlywarning]

5. I once had a temp job as a secretary for a Vice-President

of a large nationwide Insurance firm. This guy was so dumb he could barely figure out how to get his email.

His writing was so dreadful that I would have to spend hours poring over the documents and memos he wanted me to type up to see if I could make them make sense. He literally could not write a complete sentence.

His entire job function seemed to be to come in for 2 hours a day to scream at lesser employees on the phone about the horrible job they were all doing. Then he would leave to play golf or go fish or take a 3 hour 6 martini lunch. I essentially did all the other parts of his job for him.

Have I mentioned that he made $600K a year and I made $12/hr? (Good wages for no college degree, but nevertheless...) This guy was such a worthless, ignorant, alcoholic, mouth-breathing Repuke piece of crap I couldn't stand it. I had to pretend I liked him so I wouldn't lose the job.

I completely lost whatever faith I had in corporate America after working for that guy. I will say he was nice to me personally, but I always got the feeling it was because he realized that he needed his secretaries to do his work for him and cover for him when he went out to play golf or get drunk.

[autorank]

6. Don't you love how they use "bullets" in all the presentations.

I think that's a direct replica of their cognitive processes. He's probably somebody's cousin!

CORPORATE AMERICA controls the media and we get MANUFACTURED NEWS.
CORPORATE AMERICA now controls the voting machines and we get MANUFACTURED ELECTIONS.

[Demeter]

7. Illiterate Morons Like These

vote Republican. It's all part of the Package. A person who cannot think coherently, cannot write coherently. So are they going to try to teach morans how to fake coherency without actually changing the basic underlying problem, or is there some hope that competence will leak in?

Fakery it is, every time. Competence is for the wage slaves.