Mid-Michigan readers can hear Rick Cole every Wednesday at approximately 6:35 a.m. on Lansing radio station WILS 1320’s “am Lansing” program hosted by Walt Sorg.

by Richard Cole
March 16, 2009

A college kid — part of a pack my youngest daughter runs in — was sitting in the back seat of my car. I overheard him say: “I can’t write.” I looked at him in my rearview mirror. “You can’t write?”

“Nope — going to U of M and can’t write.”

I looked back. He giggled and twiddled all 10 fingers into the mirror as if playing a piano. “Cursive,” he said. “I can’t write cursive.”

Why should he? This generation was raised on keyboards. You want a laugh? Pull out a fountain pen in a group of college students. You might as well pull off your shoe and show them six toes.

I teach public relations students. That is my day job when I am not trying to keep the puppies in a basket as a department chair. Department chair — now that’s a 10-gallon-hat-with-no-cattle job if I ever had one. The chairing part is a drag, at times, but I love to get in the classroom and mix it up with the students. My experience is that most of our kids can do a decent job of getting a complete thought on a page, at least when they are pushed. I wonder if they are the exception to the rule. I constantly run into people who say that this generation of kids cannot write. I am not talking about just any kids either. I am talking about the ones who are going into PR — communicating for a living.

I wondered: is the writing of college graduates really getting worse all the time, or is that simply the talk of a bunch of old fogies who think really simple syndication involves opening up a Dunkin’ Donut shop? Andy Corner, who teaches our basic writing course at MSU, and I thought we ought to find out what the real story is. We convinced the Public Relations Society of America to share its e-mail list. Last September, we conducted a national survey of the profession. We asked the people in the PR field to give us their impression of the writing skills of entry-level practitioners. Here is what we found.

PR supervisors across the country say the entry-level practitioners they work with are “flunking” writing. These new college graduates are flunking writing press releases. They are flunking writing client memos. They cannot write persuasive letters — even business e-mails.

We had 848 PR pros in our survey. They came from big firms and small firms, folks who work in corporate departments, government offices and private PR agencies. Unambiguous results abounded.

1. According to their supervisors, young writers are as incompetent in grammar and punctuation as they are in their ability to organize ideas. When we translated these findings into a college grade point average, the results became clearer. PR supervisors said entry-level staffers are “flunking” writing. All components of writing scored below a 2.0 GPA. Even the kids who are getting the jobs in PR cannot seem to hook real-world writing.
2. Only 14 percent of PR supervisors feel their subordinates are “good writers.”
3. Fewer than 10 percent of PR supervisors agree with the statement “recent graduates are better prepared” in writing each year. Only eight respondents out of 848 — not 8 percent, but eight respondents — “strongly agreed” with that statement.
4. Half the respondents in our survey seemed almost despondent as they said they have been “reducing their expectations” of the writing skills of entry-level professionals.

This is not just about PR. We think that writing is suffering across all disciplines. Anecdotal reports in all kinds of trade publications are saying American students cannot write. National commissions have confirmed and lamented this impression. America’s high school writing scores have dropped to their lowest recorded levels.

So what is going on here? Some studies suggest that kids actually are writing more than ever. They are text messaging and “Facebooking” — sending out more words (or symbols) than any previous generation. They are writing, perhaps, but they are not “writing.” They are not reading, either. Maybe that is part of it.

Some people might think writing just is not important anymore. I can tell you that when I get a paper turned in from a Chinese or Korean student — and I am talking about Beijing and Seoul — and the grammar is better and the expression more clear than those of the American kid in the next desk over, I get alarmed. (You think my writing leaves something to be desired? You ought to read my columns in Korean.)

Writing is at the heart of almost every profession and business. At some level, clear writing reflects clear thinking. I am not sure which causes which. My thinking is not any clearer than my writing, after all.

Jud Branham, the Ann Arbor-based new media PR wizard, recently told a group of MSU students: “If you can write, you can work anywhere.” That might be a bit of an overstatement, but I am sure of this: you ought to grab any kids you know and tell them if they cannot write, they’re going to have a tough road ahead.

While you are at it, you can tell them that if they want to get a competitive edge in a very tough job market, one good place to start is to learn how to write now, while there’s a fighting chance.

You might also remind them that if they expect to become good writers, they will have to take charge of this aspect of their own education. I am very sorry to say that despite our best efforts, no one can do that for them.

Richard Cole is professor and chairperson of the Department of Advertising, Public Relations and Retailing at Michigan State University. The opinions expressed reflect his individual viewpoint and not that of the university.