We’re wrapping up week two in International Business.  I started this online class with a big bang!  I got a 60 on the first assignment.  There is nothing like starting out the term with a failing grade and having to dig myself out of a hole.  I am not sure what it was, but something hit me over the head and I was not prepared.  Maybe it was the content of the class.  We did start the week talking about religious aspects of International Business.  It was certainly new for me to study eastern philosophy and some of the other things that were thrown into the mix.  Hopefully I will get a better grade this time.

I want to talk about communication.  Anyone can go through my posts over the past couple of years and see any number of times where I stressed how important being able to communicate is.  It doesn’t matter if you are planning on going back to school or not.  If you cannot communicate effectively (both written and verbal), you are behind the curve in society.  And the underlying theme in most of the courses I’ve taken online is that you must be able to communicate.

I don’t want to sound negative or knock people for mistakes they make.  I want this to be a positive message.  When I get fan mail from people, there will be the occasional e-mail that is filled with poor spelling, bad context, an incoherent thought process and other things that make me question their ability to succeed in school.

Am I perfect?  No.  I am very far from perfect in my grammar and punctuation.  But I have learned to adapt and absorbed what I’ve learned over the years.  

It has become a pet-peeve of mine when people misspell words and refuse to use the proper punctuation.  I know it can be petty on my part.  But there are many words I learned how to spell by making many mistakes that were corrected with a spell checker.  It just takes practice.

I am not a perfectionist, but please tell me how I can suggest an institution of higher learning to a person who cannot walk in the door with the basic skills to succeed.  I am not picking on anyone.  This really bothers me.  I like to see people succeed and those who make ten or fifteen spelling mistakes in a single e-mail don’t know they are doing it.

I also take into consideration that there are people who are not native to the USA or are indeed located in other countries that write to me on a regular basis.  I am not talking about those good folks.  I understand that there will be a language and communication barrier.  

This brings me to a great article I found recently that I think EVERYONE should read.

“The Value of Writing Well” puts into words many things that I want to say to people who come to me for advice about school.  

Here is an excerpt:

That is, alas, a great disservice. Being able to write well vastly improves students’ – and others’ – potential for success, regardless of the field they find themselves in. As I’ve already mentioned, people who write well tend to be better able to think through problems and tease out patterns in outwardly dissimilar situations. More importantly, people who write well have the opportunity to make a mark in the world, because their best ideas aren’t trapped in their own minds for lack of a means of expression.

This is true whether you’re a CEO or a janitor, a marketing expert or an Emergency Medical Technician. The skills that make us better writers make us better explainers, better persuaders, and better thinkers. They are the skills that allow us to “sell” our ideas effectively, whether in giving a presentation to potential funders of our company, proposing a new project to our corporate leadership, or transmitting a new policy to our employees. Being able to write well lessens the chance that we’ll be misunderstood, and increases the likelihood that our ideas will be adopted.

Writing well is not a gift reserved for the few but a set of skills that can be learned by anyone. The technical aspects can be learned in any of several ways: by taking a class, by studying books on writing, by working with a partner or a group and acting on their feedback. But while grammar and structure are an important part of writing, to write well also demands some effort to develop style. Style is what keeps people reading past the first sentence, and what keeps what you’ve written on their minds, impelling them to take action.

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