Bob has a great article: Why So Many Americans Can’t Communicate. It’s an interesting piece on the lack of solid communication skills here in America.

You will need to register with PAW to access the complete article, but here’s an excerpt to get you started:

Ever consider why millions of Americans haven’t mastered rudimentary communication skills? Please tell me the answer, because I’m baffled. All I know is that it’s become a tired and lazy theme. Two decades ago, employers were talking about job candidates–many of whom were very smart–lacking communication skills. And they’re still complaining about this.They weren’t just talking about recent high school or college grads, but experienced professionals who had trouble spitting out declarative sentences during interviews. And their written skills were equally atrocious. Resumes were strewn with grammatical errors and poor sentence structure.

The advent of spelling-and-grammar-checking programs didn’t remedy the problem, either. Often, spelling and grammar checks are wrong, because hundreds of English words have multiple meanings. Worst of all, it didn’t teach users anything; it just made them dependent upon yet another technology.

All these writing and editing gadgets made it easier to get through tedious communication tasks quickly. While they can be useful, they never should be taken as gospel, but as a helpful aide. Documents, letters, papers and resumes still have to be meticulously edited. That means not line by line, but word by word–a process most people avoid like the plague.

Interesting, no? Especially considering I don’t always use proper grammar, english – whatever, when blogging and I find myself taking more liberties with words – sometimes even making my own up.
Of course in the business world I write professional content and always try to be clear and concise when communicating. I think a large problem is that often people think communication = talking/speaking (occasionally yelling), and that’s it.
Effective communication is about so much more than talking – think active listening and things like communication style, adjusting style/message for different audiences, drawing out the unsaid, and tons more that are out of scope of this post.
And that’s not even getting into written communication.
If you make it over to the article, check out the comments at the end. I always enjoy reading other’s perspectives on interesting subjects.
Thanks to author Bob Weinstein for sharing his insights on this great piece!