Recently the Associated Press (AP) made a decision to include its allowed vocabulary a word that had served as a type of shibboleth between those who considered themselves grammar patricians and those with a more proletariat sense of grammar. AP style now allows writers to use the word "hopefully" in their reporting. Although this might appear to be a minor change from a somewhat stuffy organization, the point is that grammar and word usage are fluid in nature and continually changing.
Given the preponderance of new types of written media (blogs, IMs, twitter, etc.), the basic rules of grammar have suffered as the use of slang, emoticons, and other so-called communicational devices have becoming increasingly prevalent. Yet, grammar, or rather, using grammar in a proper manner still matters - I contend.
As Kyle Wien recently posted in a Harvard Business Review blog, he simply will not hire people with poor grammar skills. Job applications with incorrectly used words, misspellings, or other grammar inaccuracies routinely end up the trash bin. Moreover, poor grammar skills can show a lack of knowledge retention and affect in a negative manner other skill sets, such as, time management, listening ability, and critical thinking (Christensen, Barnes, & Rees, 2011). I personally remember receiving an email while an undergraduate from professor indicating the email I sent them failed to communicate my point in an effective manner due to the numerous grammar and spelling error; I felt more than a little shamefaced.
Given that we, along with our students, function in the online realm, the written word is our voice. Therefore, poorly written material is analogous to poor speech or interacting with someone who lacks interpersonal communication skills. Good points go unheeded when poorly written. Even if one has something meaningful to communicate, if written poorly, the words will fail to have the desired effect.
To help ensure our students leave our classes with improved, if not peerless, grammar, we need to strive to develop our student's grammar skills in both their written assignments as well as in the Discussion Forum. I personally have instituted a policy - save for the introductory courses - where I will not directly answer an email written poorly; rather I return the email and ask the student to rewrite it using correct spelling and proper grammar. My goal here is not to frustrate the student, but rather to instill quality grammar skills so they become more marketable to potential employers.
By being bulwark against poor grammar, we can ensure that our students leave our courses being more detail oriented, which can transfer to both professional and academic success. Additionally, given the increasing use of virtual teams and remote employees, in which writing is the primary form of communication, we can help our students adapt to this evolving marketplace by ensuring they at least have the grammar skills necessary to thrive in the virtual realm.
References:
Christensen D., Barnes, J., & Rees, D. (2011). Improving the writing skills of accounting students: An experiment. Journal of College Teaching & Learning, 1, 1-8. Retrieved from http://journals.cluteonline.com/index.php/TLC
Kyle Wines. (2012, July 20). I Won't Hire People Who Use Poor Grammar. Here's Why. Retrieved from http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2012/07/i_wont_hire_people_who_use_poo.html
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17 Comments
Hi Eric,
I have some students that do seem to care about the way that they present information in their assignments, the discussion forums, and in emails to me. However, there always seem to be a few students in each class who seem to not worry about their grammar. I have tried making suggestions to use the spell check feature and point out that it is also available when sending emails and when posting in the discussion forums. I also take off points in assignments and recommend that students go to the writing center or consider getting a writing tutor. Do you have any other suggestions to try to get students to care more about grammar?
Julie, I follow the same practice as you do with students. I will copy and paste a student's DQ post into an Individual Forum message and ask them to attend to the issues of grammar and spelling. As many of the errors would be pick up with the Spell Check feature, I remind them to use it.
Hi Eric,
In my classes, I have many students who want to add English to their degree or who want to be English teachers. I am amazed with the number of grammatical errors made by students in some of the courses. In fact, sometimes when I give feedback on the literature assignments, I find I am spending a lot of time discussing the grammatical issues in the writing. While I do feel texting is somewhat the blame, I don't feel this is the root of the problem.
I personally feel students are trained in high school and some lower level college classes that grammar is only important in the English class. In fact, when I taught in a high school, I use to share a class with a history teacher. One day, when I was in the class, he was discussion a report. He told them that since the class was not English, the grammar and spelling did not matter. He also suggested using Wikipedia for source information. The class was a college prep class, and the students were seniors. No wonder students are not prepared for college writing!
I have often shared the article that you mentioned, and I use parts from the book, Eats, Shoots, and Leaves. I feel when students realize that grammar is important in the work world and in everyday life, they will want to improve in grammar.
Students need to see that the business world will judge them by their writing skills. I went to a business writing workshop hosted by Pearson. One of the men in the round table discussion mentioned that he receives 500 applications for every opening in his company. He quickly looks through the applications and when he sees one grammatical error, the resume and application is thrown away. He doens't care how qualified the person is; if the grammar is not perfect, the person does not get an interview. I share this with my students.
Hi Patricia:
Thank you for sharing your experience concerning the importance of grammar skills in attaining employment. I too have spoken with numerous HR individuals who say much the same thing about discarding CVs with any grammar or spelling mistakes. Though any or students a familiar with "text-speak" ingrained proper spelling and grammar skill are one of the most useful skill sets we can teach.
Thanks,
Eric
Hello Julie:
It sounds like you are integrating some excellent strategies to make your students care about proper grammar. One thing I like to do is present real-world situations were grammar matters. I like to post two examples of a CV, one that has poor grammar and one with peerless grammar. I then ask them to place themselves in the position of a hiring director and to choose between the two examples. Inevitably, they chose the latter, which should indicate to the students that in the world of the written word (such as the online milieu) grammar is one's voice and their presentation to those evaluating them. This can help drive home the message that writing is your voice and to be heard correctly demand proper grammar.
Thanks,
Eric
Eric, I see that many teachers are experiencing issues related to grammar in their courses, and I can relate. This is a huge problem and I think the solution involves taking a look at the big picture issue. The real issue, in my opinion, is not so much one that students are not using it, but rather they don't have a handle on it in the first place. in other words, they can't provide what they don't know.What we are experiencing in higher education today is the inclusion of students who in the past would have not been considered college material. As a result, we are needing to incorporate more remedial elements than ever before.
The solution needs to involve teaching them grammar. One way to do this would be to establish a list of online grammar quizzes that a student could be directed to in order to improve these skills. I know that the Student Success Center has some resources, but this could be developed further and evolve into a series of quizzes that a student could take,receive immediate feedback, and improve. I am picturing an inclusive list that covers the most commonly made mistakes as well as lessons on fine-tuning. Teachers in content courses can't possibly provide the instruction that some students need to get up to par in this area, so if we had a resouce that was effective that we could send students to, it would be helpful.
Janet
Janet and friends, I see an ongoing struggle as I enter my 5th year of teaching online at GCU. Teaching in graduate courses I would expect that students would be able to write at a graduate level. Unfortunately, this is not the case. Some students, claiming to have two bachelor degrees or to have already completed another Master's degree, do not demonstrate that they have mastered the basics of grammar or essay writing. I find myself posting instructions on how to write a 5 paragraph essay. I have also encouraged students to use the GCU tutoring service or to find a assistance in their communities. I aslo encourage them to use the build-in Spell Check in the toolbar. It is quite frustrating some days.
Ron
Hello Janet:
Thank you for your thoughtful feedback about this subject matter, and I concur that the lack of writing skills in higher education is a significant problem. You idea about including grammar quizzes within the classroom setting is intriguing. As you point out, students cannot know what they have not learned. I think another issues relating to this situation is that there are many adult students (or non-traditional students) returning to the classroom after many years of being outside of the classroom. I liken this to a driver who has been driving for many years. During the epoch, they are likely to have developed some bad, but prevalent, driving habits. Although they may be able to function in their given setting, when confronted with a structured environment-whether writing or driving-the bad habits remain. While it is incumbent upon instructors in introductory course to reinforce quality-writing habits, the problem may be more systematic. It is therefore necessary that we work toward developing curricula in introductory courses that helps to break bad habits and reestablish, or perhaps elucidate the new habits, of quality writing. Thank you for your thoughts.
Eric
Ron, Eric, and all,
I have seen this in all of my classes, unfortunately. What really makes me unsettled is the fact that I am teaching graduate classes to TEACHERS. If they cannot use proper grammar, write a five paragraph essay or even write a full paragraph (which happens often), I ask myself "what are they teaching our children?" I do what all of you have mentioned, reinforce the importance of proofreading, give some pointers, even recommend the tutoring services; however, I guess my question remains...shouldn't they already know this? Of course there will be the occassional missed comma, etc. but I have had papers where I just stop marking because I lost track of what the content was. This, to me, is disheartening and I wonder if there shouldn't be some sort of entrance writing exam. If they don't pass it, they should have to take another college level grammar/ writing course first? Thoughts?
Jennifer
I have to disagree with the policy of telling students to use SpellCheck and GrammarCheck simply because I believe that these tools, in part, are to blame for the lack of writing abilities we are now seeing with our students. Of course, those tools can certainly be useful for a last check before hitting "send" but should never be used as the solution to poor writing skills. With each class, there will always be a few students who struggle tremendously with writing, i.e. no capitalization, improper word choice, countless misspellings, etc., etc. and they have little hope of succeeding in any class until they get their writing skills up to a minimal passing level. How do we help those students who are so far below what's acceptable?
I agree with Suzanne for SpellCheck and GrammarChec, with a little twist that they are still learning tools that should be used to learn how to impove your understanding of language and grammar. This is always usefull. The best tool to check grammar is whitesmoke, there is a free version online. However just like with new shoes, it is not that easy to get used to it.
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