The College World Reporter

I am an adjunct college professor in Southern California. The goal of this quarterly column is to help readers take the initiative to be responsible for improving written communication skills. This will help students become valuable students and allow instructors to serve students, better. This ultimately produces better employees for the workplace and society.
 
In every course that I teach, I am astonished to discover that basic written communication skills are so deficient in first year college students, second, third, fourth and at the graduate level. Students are graduating from college with substandard writing skills. However, higher learning institutions are not the sole culprit. Some students have developed bad habits, over time, and have become apathetic. Furthermore, professors cannot always deviate from course objectives to address this deficiency. Therefore, students may not improve before graduating from college.
 
In listening to hiring firms, the number one complaint that employers have about recent college graduates is that these new hires cannot compose basic, cohesive sentences. Lacking this important quality, could make the difference between getting a job and keeping the job.
 
According to doctors Ifte Choudhury, Ricardo E. Rocha and Richard Burt, "Without adequate written communication skills, an employee may be passed over for promotion" (Hutchison & Mills, 2003, p. 183). Simply put, a student may get the job, but may not reap the associated rewards and opportunities.
 
The authors state, "By not teaching our students to read critically and to write logically and clearly, we unsuspectingly limit their personal and professional horizons (Bradney & Courbat, 1998). An employee's ability to advance in an organization may be dependent on that person's ability to communicate both verbally and with the written word (Maher, 1990)" (Hutchison & Mills, 2003, p. 183).
 
This is one reason why I am adamant about quality writing skills. I bring errors to students' attention. Students bicker, gripe and resist, but may thank me later. I have observed that some students only aim to succeed in courses that are for their career. I contend that this thought process must change. In March 2009, one student wrote the following comment in an end of term survey for a written communication course, at a major university:
 

Purchase a Basic English Reference Guide (6 - 8th grade). Students are taught parts of speech and how to construct proper sentences, assure subjects and verbs agree, construct paragraphs, punctuate properly and more. Keep this guide handy when writing.

Invest in a Style Guide. These guides help students to be consistent when writing and to develop a voice, style and tone. Two popular guides are the Associated Press Style Guide and Chicago Style Guide.

Write daily. The more you write, the better you become. Practice makes perfect. You will make mistakes along the way, but you will not continue to make the same mistakes.

Proofread your papers. Run spell and grammar check. Although, they do not locate every error, they flag some errors.

Ask a friend to read your assignments. A second pair of eyes may identify overlooked errors, to correct before submitting to a professor or employer.

Avoid common mistakes. Know when to use words, such as: there, their and they're; too, two and to; can not and cannot; know and no. etc.

Avoid texting language in written assignments. While technology is great, it negatively affects written communication skills. Each week, students compose sentences in written assignments as follows: "i will tell u bcuz... i will b in class 2...." This is totally acceptable in written assignments. The problem is that students are not recognizing these as mistakes. This has become the norm and a major problem.

Own up to mistakes. When you discover mistakes, correct them. If I find typos in emails, even if they are casual in nature, I send a retraction or say "oops ... 'two' should have been 'too,' for example. I need to slow down and review emails, thoroughly, before sending. Also, it sends a message to the recipient, that he or she should do the same.

Strive for active voice, instead of passive. Active voice is clear and more direct than passive voice. It is easier to understand and gets to the point.

Avoid plagiarism. When researching information and using thoughts that are not your own, give credit where credit is due. See the citations and reference used in this article, for an example. Plagiarism is a serious crime, even if it is unintentional. Because this topic is such an issue, an upcoming issue will address this topic.