Thursday, December 09, 2004

What corporate America can't build: A sentence

What corporate America can't build: A sentence: "'E-mail has just erupted like a weed, and instead of considering what to say when they write, people now just let thoughts drool out onto the screen,' Hogan said."

This is so true. There seems to be some kind of mental block for people when they're writing email. Grammar? Who needs it. Spelling? "The spell checker didn't pick it up." Sentence structure? The list goes on. I'm no english expert but I generally know how to put together a fairly clear sentence. Spelling mistakes? Unacceptable; I'm horrified when I realize an email i sent has spelling errors because it usually just from lazy proofreading.
I think part of the problem comes from the fact that most people don't know how to type (I'm included there), and don't proofread (not me). Therefore they end up with garbled sentences and typos everywhere. If they had taken an extra minute before sending, they would be able to pick up many of the mistakes.
I'm glad companies are starting to get remedial help for people. The sad thing is that many of the people responsible for making those decisions don't have the skills to notice.