Mitch Paradise.com
Say what you mean, and say it well! TM
"What we've got here is...failure to communicate."
While this immortal line from the movie, Cool Hand Luke, described Paul Newman's persistent efforts to defy authority, this wry observation by a Southern chain gang Captain could just as easily apply to the persistent and pervasive failure that exists today in written and spoken communication.
We hear it every day from media spokespersons, news and sports reporters and the people they interview, on-air personalities, politicians, and, in general, people who should know how to speak and write better. Teachers hear it every day and see it in the work turned in by their students. Bosses see it in daily reports as well as sales and marketing documents. It is not unusual for top companies to generate documents with egregious errors in grammar, syntax and usage. If caught at all, it is often too late to correct the errors which then publicly represent the company.
With the world suddenly all a-Twitter, where there is an over-reliance on spell checker programs and similar computer tools, clarity of expression has become more important than ever: for public communication; for professional manuals or corporate reports; for educational materials or personal profiles; for marketing tools or press releases; for college essays and applications; for oral presentations or opening and closing arguments; for letters, speeches, or term papers, and for information at all levels. Yet in each of these arenas and others, we are confronted daily with a serious failure to communicate correctly in our written and spoken language. Whether it's a willful disregard for the proper rules of language, syntax, spelling, and punctuation, or merely a blatant display of rules never learned, it doesn't matter. It's an omnipresent issue, but not one that need go unaddressed.
If you're going to use the English language to communicate an idea and make an impression, why not make it clear, concise, and correct?
Why not say what you mean, and say it well? TM
