This article addresses the issue of deficiencies in writing that are foreseen to create a loss of proficient business writers. The author attributes the lack of proficient education and literacy mainly in college levels to the loss of proficient business writers. The article also identifies other the reasons for deficiencies in business writing such as lack of effective communication and writing skills among the employees. Most employers in the United States are usually displeased with the writing skills of their employees. It can be confirmed by people who inspect professional literature frequently in many academic disciplines. Despite the frequent dismay, instructors in learning institutions are not doing enough to resolve the situation.

The problem mostly starts at the basic level of education whereby students in high schools are taught by underpaid instructors who are not concerned about their students’ grammatical structure. The students graduate without effective writing skills. The problem is transferred to colleges and even escalates when the students encounter lecturers who are even lesser concerned about their grammar and writing skills. These students most probably graduate from colleges with such deficiencies and go to the job market which demands them to have proficient writing and communication skills.

These business writing deficiencies many times compel the employers to retrain employees to equip them with effective writing skills so that they may be proficient in the documentation works. This retraining usually costs the employers a fortune and also leads to wastage of time which would otherwise be used in business duties. The author views the inability of business employees and even recent graduates to use Standard English as a significant factor to the poor performance of the business including the business reputation. One of the consequences of these deficiencies is inaccurate accountability of business performance and ambiguity in documenting business information. This reason makes the businesses incur an extra cost of retraining them which is viewed as an unnecessary expenditure. The National Commission of Writing, for instance, did research on the cost incurred by various American Corporations which were affected by deficient writers and published a report. The report indicated that American businesses spend nearly $3.1 billion every year to retrain deficient business writers (Kleckner & Marshall, 2014).) Various positions held in a company require rigorous reading and documentation of blueprints, and other information used in making business decisions and therefore requires employees involved to have proficient reading and documentation skills.

The author proposes the possible solution that can reduce writing deficiencies, for instance, an improved context-based approach, a regular error marking, and a glossing approach can minimize errors made by employees and students at a sentence-level. Quible & Griffin (2007) agree that writing should be comprehensive and informative. Suppose the teachers do not rigorously check their students’ punctuation and grammar errors will the students aware of the extent of their writing deficiencies. Of course no, teachers and instructors need to act like grammar police. Some students take remedial writing courses before joining colleges to enable them to improve their writing skills. Such students will probably have fewer difficulties fitting in the business writing environment after their college education. The author proposes linking conventional grammar lessons with different learning techniques to reduce writing errors and increase proficiency.

Quible & Griffin (2007) reviewed the literature on the existing research on writing deficiencies and ways to reduce them to emphasize that the use of conventional strategies alone is not efficient to teach grammar structures. They held an opinion that if the instructors do not change the way they teach writing skills from the foundational level of education, workers will keep being less effective and their businesses will continue to perform poorly.

References

Kleckner, M. J., & Marshall, C. R. (2014). Critical communication skills: Developing course competencies to meet workforce needs. The Journal of Research in Business Education, 56(2), 59.

Quible, Z. K., & Griffin, F. (2007). Are writing deficiencies creating a lost generation of business writers?. Journal of Education for Business, 83(1), 32-36.