Writing Deficiencies - Essay Example

Writing Deficiencies The majority of the employers in the United s are not satisfied with writing skills exhibited by their employees. The poor writing skills are not a surprise to people who go through the professional literature in almost all academic fields. Although the expressions of dissatisfaction are many and strong, professional educators are doing little to correct the situation. The writing deficiencies in employees have both tangible and intangible results. Based on a report by the NWC, American firms spend about $3.

1 billion annually in remediating the writing deficiencies of their employees (Quible & Griffin 2007). The intangible results due to deficient writing skills include the image degradation for both the employers and employees and the reduced productivity because employees must reread many times poorly written materials so as to get the intended meaning. Another result is the detrimental outcomes when incorrect decisions are made due poorly and ineffectively written materials (Quible & Griffin 2007).

Many are the times when educators have debated how grammar should best be taught. Regardless of whether teaching grammar has benefits, no impact, or harmful effects on students’ writing skills has been a topic that has drawn many controversies for at least five decades. For many years, teachers have taught grammar to students using a rule-based approach. The methods feature two characteristics that are sentence diagramming and parts of speech. Over time, the rules-based approach became disregarded in favor the context-based approach that was advocated by Weaver.

The context-based approach then became the most preferred method of teaching punctuation and grammar. The context-based approach puts emphasis on what students are writing and reading (Quible & Griffin 2007). Instructors who guide students through writing programs are under a challenge to develop new approaches that will help students in remediating their sentence construction errors. The writing programs are most likely the last writing courses that the students get before they are awarded their respective undergraduate degrees.

Because of the disparity between the undergraduates entering the workforce and their writing skills, teachers and instructors educating future employees should not ignore this fact. Researchers have come up with various alternatives to the rules-based design. Unless the alternatives efficiently help students in their writing skills, the weaknesses will continue frustrating employers (Quible & Griffin 2007). References QUIBLE, Z., & GRIFFIN, F. (2007). Are Writing Deficiencies Creating a Lost Generation of Business Writers?. Journal of Education for Business, 1, 2.