"Why can't business majors write?" asks Dave Carpenter (Post-Gazette.com) in his article, Eschewing obfuscation: Business schools, firms target bad writing:
Like a dark and stormy night, bad writing has long shadowed the business world -- from bureaucratese to mangled memos to the cliche-thick murk of "corporatespeak."
But in an era of nonstop e-mail and instant and text messaging, written communication skills within companies may be getting even worse as quality is compromised by the perceived need for speed.
Wary of the trend, not just businesses but also business schools across the country are working harder to eschew obfuscation. Some have added or expanded writing programs in recent years; others use corporations' faux pas as case studies in hopes their students will learn to avoid them.
"eschew obfuscation"? Hmm. The article relies entirely upon anecdotal evidence, so let me add one of my own to the mix.
Once upon a time, there was a student who, working on a second undergraduate degree, had been in college for 9 years but had done little writing outside of lab reports and translations of dead texts. Conversing with his Latin professor, he mentioned, "I think I'll take the advanced expository writing next semester."
"Why," asked the professor?
He replied, "Well, to learn to write."
The professor shrugged a "whatever" gesture.
At the end of the semester, the student handed in two 3-page papers. Quickly perusing them, the professor glanced up and stated, "You might want to take that writing course." And the student did and wrote competently ever after.
Although some in the article would claim that business majors can't write due to laziness or the IM-multitasking culture, it's simply that writing, like any other skill, is one that must be practiced. According to Peter Handal,
"I think that would suggest that people are just so happy to get the communications going that they aren't spending the time on how to communicate," he said.
Probably, most people just aren't that interested in writing to spend the time. If they were, they would become writers—or at least bloggers.
Update: Alex Reid has a relevant post on student writing.
