Do Communication Students Have the “Write Stuff”?: Practitioners Evaluate Writing Skills of Entry-Level Workers

Abstract

Communication managers have long expressed the sentiment that good writing contributes to a company's bottom line and helps the writer gain momentum up the corporate ladder. However, an alarming number of communication professionals report that entry-level employees possess poor writing skills and even poorer editing skills. This article describes a quantitative study conducted with senior-level communication professionals who report that entry-level workers lack a thorough understanding of the rules of grammar, punctuation, and sentence structure. In addition, these senior-level professionals feel that colleges and universities do an inadequate job of training future communication workers in writing competency.

KEYWORDS:

• communication
• editing
• entry-level workers
• grammar
• media convergence
• public relations
• punctuation
• skills
• training
• university
• writing

Acknowledgments

Joseph Basso (PhD, Texas A&M University; JD, Widener University) is an Associate Professor, Department of Public Relations/Advertising, Rowan University, 201 Mullica Hill Road, Glassboro, NJ 08028, USA (E-mail: [email protected]).