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In his irreverent post for the Harvard Business Review blog, Kyle Wiens, CEO of iFixit, discusses the importance of grammar in the workplace. He ends the article by saying, "That’s why I grammar test people who walk in the door looking for a job. Grammar is my litmus test."
What do you think? Share your thoughts here.
I think this article does address an important point aside from being a CEO's rant about the necessity of grammar. It addresses the fact that people cannot learn things effectively if they ignore the details. English as a language does not have many grammar rules in comparison to Spanish or French with all their different kind of accents. Therefore, asking to learn the grammar rules of a language with this level of simplicity should not be an impossible task. Many people pride themselves in knowing English but I think the only ones who should be prideful are those who really have mastered the language and that includes knowing how to properly write in English. As he said written communication becomes our represention when we cannot be there physically and so I feel that as English speakers we should learn to represent ourselves positively.
ReplyDeleteBeing from Venezuela, the first language I learned was Spanish, and in fact it is the one I manage the best. I learned English in school, I studied it during 14 years so I really got to see the differences between grammar in Spanish and in English, and it is much more difficult to write in Spanish than to write in English. Grammar rules, in English, are easy to learn and to apply, so I think that it is important to emphasize writing well, without mistakes, the use of punctuations, among other things that we have to be aware when we are writing. In Venezuela, and I think that this happens all over the world, depending on the way you write and on your grammar mistakes, you may be labeled on a certain social status, and you can even assume how well educated the person is depending on their writing. I have to admit that I still make grammar mistakes in English, but I am making a great effort to improve the way I write, to avoid grammar mistakes, because after reading the article I really think that it is something important if I am willing to work here at the United States after graduating.
ReplyDeleteI'd love nothing more then to play devil's advocate, but the author does raise an important point. That is that proper spelling and grammar is a good indicator of inteligence. While there are exceptions to every rule, someone who has gone through the public education system has gone through years of english classes. If after 20+ years you still don't know the basics, it shows a lack of discipline. It show you don't read or try to better yourself as a person.
ReplyDeleteI agree with us knowing our general grammar skills because its what portrays us when we're not face to face with someone. Even if we're not studying English or Communication as our major, language is always around us. We have to use it for any job we have an interview for regardless of anything. I'm not saying we have to know all the fundamentals of English, but we have to have a basis in order for us to communicate with others effectively.
ReplyDeleteI believe this article shows insight on how businessman hire people based on the business. Knowing correct grammar is definitely necessary to know for personal use on a day-to-day basis. However, based on the business, it shouldn't be a restriction on who does or doesn't get the job. For example, a job at Publix doesn't need an employee to know perfect grammar to complete the job at full potential. Employment at such places that work on manuals and things as such, I think should require perfect grammar, so I agree on Mr.Kiens part then. Overall, I believe perfect grammar totally depends on the place of work, however society should know it for personal knowledge anyway
ReplyDeleteShakira davis
ReplyDeleteI think this article is a vigorous article because it talks about grammar and how students need to work on their pronunciation when communicating with others which is a serious problem that we have to work on especially if we want to have a professional Job or become doctors or run your own business and company we have to know where to place our sentences in the right order so that when we do get out into the real world we will already know exactly what to do and not have to have messed up grammar. In the real world you have to have the knowledge and understand how important it is to have vigorous grammar, I am guilty of having this problem because sometimes I place my sentences and pronunciation in the wrong order but this article is good to have and to just recognize that grammar plays a big part in today's world especially us as College students.
3 examples of why grammar is so important:
ReplyDelete* We're going to learn to cut and paste kids!
* After rotting in the pantry, my room mate finally threw out the bread.
* You are my sons favorite aunt.
- comma needed because we are not going to cut and paste kids
- sentence was worded in the wrong order, so it makes it sound like my room mate was rotting, instead of the bread
- not adding the apostrophe to son makes you think my sister has 2 sons when in fact she only has 1
These examples are meant to be funny, but the reality is sad. It shows why we need to be more careful and mindful when writing or speaking. It is a serious problem that I think will continue, despite efforts being made to teach students proper grammar and spelling in school.- Marie P
Giorgio Riccobono
ReplyDeleteI think she is right. She is the CEO and she decides the rules. I do see in bad way my people when texting me in Italian have poor grammar. I can not understand how that is possible after they have gone through the mandatory education. I am not an English native speaker but I am working hard everyday to try to improve my English. Now-a-day communication is very important; you must know how to write and what to write.
I have to agree with the writer about the importance of proper grammar. I tend to be the kind of person that takes pride in writing, not only in school or work papers, but in my everyday life. I completely agree that how you write shows how competent and intellectual you are. Not knowing the difference between their and they're is actually more common than people think. I see it all the time on blogs and Facebook statuses. Even though the people making these mistakes might actually be bright individuals, their writing proves otherwise. I think all high skilled companies should be aware of their employees grammar because at the end of the day, they are the ones representing them.
ReplyDeleteAfter analyzing this article, as a college student and future employer, I believe that grammar is an essential tool that demonstrates one's knowledge and capability. On a daily basis, we find ourselves communicating through: blogs, messages, comments, mails, and even texts to get a message across. Yet, our opinion can be triggered in credibility if there is continuous grammatical errors. This is why it's important to take into consideration our punctuation, use of words and sentence structure. We need to understand that being able to write is completely different from knowing how to write. Written communication has had and will continue to have a huge influence is our society specially now that verbal communication is decreasing. As I come closer to better job opportunities and a career, I have realized the importance of my writings. It is a reflection of my work ethic and acknowledgements. This article served as an reinforcement of how crucial it is to master one's grammar.
ReplyDeleteKatherine Quijano
ReplyDeleteI think this article is informing us about new way how we might evaluate on a job interview. Moreover, is trying to let us know how important simple things are, in this case the grammar. Sometimes we are more focus on learning as many things we can and we forget that is more important how well we do or know one simple thing than many on wrong way. This is like when we a baking a cake. To make a cake we have follow a recipe and use all ingredients on it in order to have a delicious cake. But if we missed any of the ingredients on the recipe we may have make big mistake. For example we know that cakes are sweet, right??? But what will be happen if we forgot to add sugar when we are making the cake? Simple it will not taste the same as a regular cake. Same thing happen when we are trying to do any task. If we forgot the simple thing we will fail in any task. I think the simple things are more important that the complex things. In my case I came to this country 5 years ago. I emigrate from my country with few English skills but I was able to understand what I was told to do. Consequently, I was placed on high levels of English at school. Well it seems that for a person who understands a language, it knows the language. But they forgot to place me on a level where I will be taught the basics English skills. Now that I am in a high level of education I feel that I missing that kind of basic English classes where I was suppose to learn grammar and how to pronounce the word well. This is why I think that smallest and simple thing are so important that the complex things.
I completely agree with the article. if a person especially if they were born here and wet to school and beyond should have a good basic knowledge of grammar. it will make you more effective in your line of work. we as students should work on our pronunciation when communicating with others especially if we want to have a professional job interview.
ReplyDeleteIn this era, technology has dominated our literacy capacity. The way we write on Twitter, Facebook, Kik, and other social networks has become the way we speak in real life. Grammar is important because it has been taught from elementary and is still being taught in our everyday life. If we fail to understand the difference between their, there, they’re at this age then there is no hope in mastering skills such as teaching, dancing, or even communicating. I believe that this article can be valid and inaccurate at the same time. We are human beings, we are going to forget commas, how to spell words, or even adding a subject or predicate. America constantly want people to learn their language but they are inconsiderate. There are more than 2700 languages spoken and 7000 dialects, you cannot base your hiring preferences on grammar. Our words are different, it is even worded differently. This man is outrageous!
ReplyDeletePersonally, I agree completely with the author. Proper grammar is relevant for all businesses and scenarios. This is especially important in her (the author) case because her business deals with writing the instructions of other businesses products. Could you imagine the legal trouble she would get in if someone got hurt (or worse) while driving a forklift due to the fact that the victim was confused because of some shoddy grammar? What about an import/export company, I guess if they send something, or a thousand somethings, to the wrong place simply because someone misused the wrong word would be fine right? Of course it wouldn't, said employee may no longer be employed if this happened. Also, poor grammar just makes you look bad. Whether it's at an interview for a job or writing in for a newspaper. Poor grammar will portray an image that will only work against you.
ReplyDeleteDavid R.
I have to agree with this article in that grammar does reveal more than just English skills. It reveals level of education, attention to detail, and English proficiency. Which are generally important for a wide range of jobs. I found the correlation between grammar and attention to detail especially fascinating because, now that I think about it, it makes a lot of sense. Grammar requires a lot of attention because we generally don’t think with periods, comas and semicolons. We have to be meticulous and actually pay close attention to what we are writing or it will all just end up a huge run-on sentence. This article really made me think about the importance of brushing up my grammar skills in today’s competitive society.
ReplyDeleteErick Mejia
ReplyDeleteKyle Weins is absolutely right, Infact I positively agree on his point of view. As minimal our education may be we have to be prepared for certain job opportunities we search and apply for. Kyle Wein as the CEO of his company he has to be assured his employees are prepared to deal with the daily tasks ahead of them, but with daily stresses and pressures they have from work. Being able to type correctly or write -even speak- is very fundamental on a daily basis, knowing how to express yourself the right way, but thorough examplifies how you carry yourself on a daily basis. In any work related environment carrying yourself the right way and being able to speak right and communicate right tells a lot about yourself, but it shows your boss he was right in hiring you.
Although I might get annoyed by bad grammar, I'm always a little critical of grammar nazis. The purpose of communication is to convey your emotions or an idea. If you understood what the person was trying to say why is there a problem? Honestly if you're concerned over the fact that someone used a semicolon instead of a colon, I will judge you a lot more than someone who used 'their' instead of 'there'. I understand that for certain positions good grammar is a necessity, but ignorance of punctuation should not invalid someone's ability to fill positions unaffected by grammar.
ReplyDelete