When a teacher told me they were putting the discipline of diagramming sentences back into public school curriculum, I was surprised it had been taken out. My grammar is far from perfect, but as a result of this exercise in my early childhood education, I at least know the difference between a noun and a verb and a sentence and a fragment—knowledge that too many professionals do not seem to possess today.

This conclusion is not only based on my experience with workers who can’t write a comprehensible sentence, but reports from the National Commission on Writing saying more than one-third of U.S. professionals do not possess adequate writing skills.

This is sad—especially since professionals are spending significantly more time writing than they were five years ago, accounting for as much as 30 percent of the average professional’s workday, said another survey conducted by BackDRAFT, provider of business writing training solutions.

The survey found that financial and insurance employees spend over 36 percent of they day writing, government workers write 37 percent of the day and business service professionals write 31 percent of their day.

Although e-mail has become the predominant writing activity for most business professionals—accounting for more than two work hours per day per person or 400 hours per year—you also write memos, reports and presentations—not to mention a resume and cover letter that help you get hired in the first place.

Listen to what employeres say.

John Baldoni of Baldoni Consulting reviews a resume and cover letter to see if it’s clear, coherent and expressive, saying, “Poor writing may be an indication of lack of education or at least lack of paying attention or concentration.”

Dave Lakhani, president of Bold Approach, a business consulting firm, asks applicants to send an e-mail “detailing specifically why they feel they are qualified for the job.” He also asks them to write a news release announcing their new position as if they’d been hired. “Nearly two thirds of the people who respond can’t write at an acceptable level” and as a result, he has “turned down dozens of potential candidates for positions.”

Chris Consorte, owner of Integrated Direct LLC, asks applicants to write a few paragraphs in their application, in which he is looking to “ensure it’s grammatically correct and sound in message delivery.”

Some managers blame e-mail for poor writing. “The intense reliance on e-mail to conduct business has negatively impacted writing ability,” said Beth Zimmerman, founder of Cerebellas., a business consulting firm. “In business, it’s fair to expect people to be able to convey their ideas in a clear and powerful way.”

Some—including Consorte, who teaches Managerial Communications at several New York area colleges--blame high schools and colleges. Lakhani expresses a similar sentiment, saying, “If you’ve attended a four-year university and have above a 3.0 GPA and can’t write a readable sentence, something went severely wrong.”

Nancy Stamp, dean of Binghamton University’s Graduate School in Binghamton, New York is doing something about that. She introduced an online writing tutorial after hearing from employers that graduates students needed help. It covers such subjects as how to write a business letter and a professional e-mail and has been taken by 30 percent of its students. Hamilton College in Clinton, New York offers students a program utilizing peer writing tutors.

But getting in the door is only half the story. Once on board, an employer can monitor your writing. Consorte said he reviews all written communications by making employees “copy me personally on all correspondence to clients.”

And if you want to move up in your career, writing is key because the higher up you go the more writing you’ll do—everything from performance reviews to proposals and persuasive arguments.

Most important, your writing is a reflection of what’s going on your head. If you can’t write well, employers are going to conclude you can’t think clearly either.

© by Andrea Kay