Writing

Angela Quintanilla

Case Study Project

The Power of Language in a Workplace

Why should applicants that lack grammar skills automatically get eliminated simply because they spelled “its” instead of “it’s” on their resume? Corporations should take in consideration of the job requirements for the job opening the new hire is applying for, the educational background that the new hire came, and applicants not understand how to properly use grammar and the new generation wanting to get their message across rather than to see the importance of the structure of the message. Corporations should not decline applicants due to their lack of grammar skills.

There are plenty jobs where written communication is not required, like working in construction, being a cashier and driving 18- wheelers. Though these jobs require little to any written communication, many applicants get eliminated from job opportunities based of the lack of grammar skills in their application, or resume. John Challengers article Consider the Candidate and the Position, explains, “there are many positions in which written communication is rare. Yet candidates for these positions are frequently eliminated based on their use of poor or nontraditional grammar.” It is important that corporations to understand if the applicant is fully qualified for the job opening and the requirements for the job. For example, a cahier isn’t going to write an article on their everyday life working as a cahier like a journalist would.

Corporations eliminate candidates due to their lack of grammar and punctuation corrections, but do cooperation stop and think that the candidates don’t know how to use proper grammar. Public schools seem to not prioritize to teach proper grammar. In John McWhorter article Good Application with Bad Grammar, he explains “After we pat ourselves on the back for upholding grammar standards, how many of us can really justify barring someone from a decent job because he or she isn’t always clear on the difference between “your” and “you’re”? Especially when it’s more likely the fault of the individual’s education than laziness?” Though it’s not the fault that these individuals can’t afford to go to a private school to have a better education, public schools need to do better with teaching the basics of proper grammar. So instead of seeing a candidate as being lazy, they should understand the fact that the applicant may not understand or know how to use punctuation and grammar.

With the generation growing up with twitter, Instagram, and twitter, they don’t see the importance of commas and having correct grammar, they see the importance of having their message get crossed. In John Challenger article, Consider the Candidate and it position, he explains “It is important to remember that younger generations, particularly the generation entering the work force today, grew up texting, sharing on Facebook and tweeting — using as few words as possible to get their messages across. For younger generations, the content of the message is far more important than the structure. They rely heavily on shortcuts and are quick to abandon the conventional rules of grammar and punctuation.” The people in this world are changing and the world is changing so much that it hard to go back to the old days where people saw the importance it was to have proper grammar and not just getting their message across, but is that a reason to put a candidate’s application in the no pile?