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.
My mangled writing only causes headaches.
Jon H
I wonder if the complaint means spelling, or the more subtle, insidious evils of bad grammar, sentence structure, word choice, and overall writing competency.
In other words, the problem of government workers who write like Bush speaks.
albedo
A few bits of grammar and spelling I wish everyone would learn, once and for all:
1) “Loose” is when something isn’t tight. “Lose” is when you don’t win. I see people calling Democrats “loosers” about ten times a day in comments sections.
2) “It’s” means “it is.” It’s not the possessive form of “it.”
3) For that matter, why do people so often put an apostrophe before the pluralizing “s” at the end of word’s? I mean, words.
4) “Retarded,” not, “retarted.”
5) Quotation marks have a very specific use, but people often seem to use them for emphasis, or just kind of sprinkle them around like fairy dust.
6) The “I/me” dilemma. Look, it’s easy. Take away the other person you were doing something with from the sentence and see how it scans. “They gave her and I a passing grade,” becomes the obviously wrong “They gave I a passing grade.”
7) In general, why are so many words misspelled? Spell check, spell check, spell check.
8) “You’re” is a contraction of “you are.” “Your” is used when the “you” in question possesses something.
9) “Bemused” is not synonymous with “amused.” Lots of professional writers get this one wrong.
I know everyone hates a grammarian, but extremely sloppy writing always strikes me as being basically rude. It shows contempt, or at the very least, lack of concern, for whoever’s on the receiving end.
JG
I hate stuff like ‘would of’, ‘could of, ‘should of’.
Nathan Lanier
Oye.
I could go on, and on, and on.
“They’re, Their, and There” always get mangled.
“Affect and effect”
“Definitely”
And then there’s the always ironic “You have terrible grammer.”
“I could care less”
And I come from a much younger generation than most of the folks around here (I think), and there’s nothing more annoying than AOL speak. Ur, l8ter, omg. I have 27 year old friends who still use such things in e-mails.
John Cole
My sins against the English language are myriad, but most of them stem from the fact that I type with my feet.
As I age, I find myself becoming much worse with homonyms.
Nathan Lanier
http://www.confusingwords.com/
Problem solved.
Kathy K
See albedo, JG, and Nathan for examples of things that make me shudder…
You mostly commit typos (please offer to teach me to type with my feet, btw… sounds like a nice talent).
Typos can be forgiven. “Apple’s for sale” cannot be forgiven. (Shudder…)
Rick
…examples of things that make me shudder…
You mean that’s not “shutter?” I’ve seen it; maybe on some “bumber” sticker.
Cordially…
albedo
“there’s nothing more annoying than AOL speak. Ur, l8ter, omg. I have 27 year old friends who still use such things in e-mails.”
God, no kidding. If I never see “lol” again it’ll be too soon. To say nothing of “rotflmfao.”
John Cole
I would argue l33t speak is more annoying.
eileen from OH
S’cuse me, but I’d like to interrupt this discussion of what bugs us all, writing-wise, which is great fun but doesn’t approach the bigger issue.
Why isn’t our children learning how to write good? (sarcasm intended.)
Maybe if teachers (insert boo-hiss) didn’t have to spend so much bloody time with testing, they could actually spend some time on teaching writing? Maybe if teachers (insert 2nd boo-hiss) didn’t have to spend so much time dealing with absent-yet-complaining parents that don’t support them they could actually spend time teaching writing? Maybe if teachers (insert 3rd boo-hiss) could actually spend as much of their time teaching as they do filling out freakin’ forms, then things like writing wouldn’t be given such short shrift.
Yeah, I’m jumping on this thread and seguing to a defense of teachers – which at some point, I predict, this thread will be about. I’m a former teacher myself, although my tenure was brief. Teaching writing takes TIME, and patience, and individual instruction. And teachers today have little enough of all of those – thanks to all of the ridiculous restrictions on their time AND the lack of support/backup that they get from parents.
You want kids to write better? Let ’em write. And free teachers from extraneous crap, so that they can help.
eileen from OH