I enjoyed the article on Harvard Business Revew's website called "I won't hire people who use poor grammar. Here's why." Despite its shortcomings (including a sentence that ends in a preposition), the general point of the article echoes an argument that Brian Dean and I have made many times before on our show: It's important for people to know how to communicate, across a variety of media. There's a right way and a wrong way to use everything from text messaging to published books, and in an age where ideas are profoundly important, it's essential that everyone understand how to communicate effectively. Nothing seems to waste more time in my day-to-day work than e-mails that don't actually mean anything. They probably make sense inside the heads of the people typing them, but they fail to deliver a useful message...and that leads to both frustration and embarrassment. Who wants to be the person who says, "Hey - I got your email yesterday, but I couldn't understand a thing you wrote. How come you didn't write it like you would have said it to me over the phone?"
Thanks for listening this Sunday night -- we'll be back next Sunday night at 9.
