Grammar in the Workplace
I was listening to the Wall Street Journal This Morning radio show while riding my bike this morning and there was an interesting discussion about grammar and spelling in today’s workplace.
The discussion was primarily about how kids who grow up in the texting and social media age are very reluctant to use proper grammar when communicating verbally and through writing at work. Although people are very thorough when it comes to proof-reading their cover letters and resumes, this changes when they are hired as the same care does not go into internal e-mails, communicating via the firm’s messaging system, and even talking in meetings.
I for one am guilty of this. I always wrote a lot of internal communication at work using abbreviations, sentence fragments, and the like. One of the most significant usage errors they talked about that I almost always use is “Bill and me” instead of the proper “Bill and I”. In my experience, however, I’ve seen upper management also guilty of similar infractions. ‘Thx’ instead of ‘thanks’, ‘mins’ instead of ‘minutes’ and so on.
The segment went on to describe how the internet generation just does not put much weight on the quality of their grammar into what they perceive as quality work. They are concentrating on creating the next algorithm or app as a token of success rather than how well they write, which apparently infuriates managers who grew up with a heavy emphasis on grammar. As a matter of fact, Twitter, which I am an avid user of, actually encourages the use of bad grammar as they only allow 140 characters in their messages and make you think of ways to abbreviate everything possible to fit a longer message into their parameters.
What does everyone think about this? As the majority of the audience on this forum grew up with the internet and texting as a big part of their lives, I want to see what your take on the matter is.
Comments
One of my biggest pet peeves
One of my biggest pet peeves is lack of grammar/spelling errors in e-mail subject lines. I catch it all the time, whether it be from a MD to a Analyst. I know some programs like Microsoft Office wont spell check it so people often overlook it. I guess all of this (and your article) shows an absolute dependency on spell check haha
It's nonsense to say people
It's nonsense to say people don't put as much weight on grammar just because they don't use the proper grammar ALL THE TIME at work. I think most of us spend enough time at work looking for comma errors on pitchbooks and reports and what have you that when it comes down to casual conversation I'd give no thought to emailing a coworker very informally. Grammar usage is still there - when it counts. It's not like the previous generations didn't use bad grammar - they just spoke it rather than typing it. Same thing.
That being said there are some basic things that tick me off no matter what the setting, mostly to do with your/you're, their/they're/there, etc. But otherwise who cares?
Who are you going to believe, me or your lying eyes?
Personally I make sure to
Personally I make sure to write correctly no matter the medium. I can understand people putting things like 'mins', 'btw' and 'imo' but spelling things like their / there / they're really aggravate me. It's really no extra effort to type and write properly and makes whatever you say come across so much better.
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totally agree about
totally agree about Grammer
haha. fuck I'm stupid
In addition to "there"
In addition to "there" "they're" "their", improperly using "your" and "you're" really gets me annoyed too. Is it really that difficult to use them correctly? For some reason, every other grammatical error is tolerable except these to me.
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so i used to work at this
so i used to work at this muni-bond advisory shop, which was a subsidiary of a large international law firm. we would send reports to our clients that had a lot of legal language.
when i was working on a deal, i noticed that the template had a subject-verb disagreement, which i changed before submitting to my manager for review. my manager was a pretty smart person, but was kind of a fob (from China) and "corrected" it by marking it in red asking me to change it back to what it was originally.
i didn't argue and did what i was told.
Money Never Sleeps? More like Money Never SUCKS amirite?!?!?!?
The above gets me too. EDIT:
The above gets me too. EDIT: Post about "they're, their and there"
I also hate "Could of" and "Would of"...
I mean what the fuck. It doesn't even make any sense.
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Senior bankers are the worst.
Senior bankers are the worst. I would often receive e-mails with no body message, unnecessary abbreviations (Pls, Thx, etc.). They're often on the road and using their BlackBerry to e-mail, but still, analysts are generally better with grammar in my experience.
When one man, for whatever reason, has an opportunity to lead an extraordinary life, he has no right to keep it to himself.
I am a policeman when it
I am a policeman when it comes to this. Texting, email, Facebook, any medium ... my brain doesn't work in any other way and it just irks me to see sloth permeate the way we communicate. It's a language, I follow it.
The things other people send, however, I can't control; I'm a pragmatist, so what I can't control, doesn't concern me too much.
A lot of people do certain things to add days to their life. I do things to add life to my days.
Wow, great timing. I just
Wow, great timing.
I just started a new corporate job. I'm from an arts background so in university I was drilled to be a writing machine. What has shocked me in my workplace (where most have a numbers background) is how bad the writing skills are. In all my training documents there are multiple errors, and just yesterday I discovered a girl in my team can't spell simple 5/6 letter words. I'm not exaggerating.
As for internal communications, I don't think you need to use perfect grammar. You just need to be able turn it on for when it really matters.
APAE: It's a language, I
It's a language, I follow it.
lolol I hope this was intentional
Yuriy A: I was listening to
I was listening to the Wall Street Journal This Morning radio show while riding my bike this morning and there was an interesting discussion about grammar and spelling in today’s workplace.
Not to be a dick, but you need a comma before the first "and." It separates two independent clauses.
"A man generally has two reasons for doing anything. One that sounds good, and the real one." - J.P. Morgan
Senior bankers are the worst,
Senior bankers are the worst, non sensical stream of conscious emails that often repeat themselves within the email - smartphone or desktop
I actually am guilty of this.
I actually am guilty of this. Even tho i always did well on the verbal/writing parts of my sat/gmat/gre I write emails and message forum posts (like this one) like an illiterate dickhead. Im just used to writing like this cuz of my twitter account and texting...and I dont feel like editing the message.
"Life all comes down to a few moments. This is one of them." - Bud Fox
To be completely honest, I'm
To be completely honest, I'm a grammar Nazi. However, I just haven't noticed particularly poor grammar, spelling, or informal usage in internal or external email among co-workers or clients. Perhaps the age group of my peers is why I'm not seeing this issue--I'm literally one of the youngest people in my business, so perhaps that's why I don't see a lot of text talk or sloppy work.
Grammar: The difference
I think that using mins and