Adding Grammar Testing to Hiring Practice
To: John Smith
From: Chris Young
Date: September 25, 2013
Re: Adding Grammar Testing to Hiring Practice
After reading Kyle Wiens’s Article, “I Won’t Hire People Who Use Poor Grammar,” in the July 20, 2012 issue of Harvard Business Review, I would like to make some suggestions on the decision of adding grammar testing to our company’s hiring practice.
Wiens has suggested two reasons why good grammar is one of the essential characteristics of a job candidate:
Good grammar reflects professionalism and trustworthiness of the candidate;
Grammar indicates how detail-oriented the candidate is.
First of all, communication is inseparable with daily operation in the form of reports, memo, and emails, with customer, co-workers, and suppliers. Good grammar is one of the fundamental requirements for effective communication. As Mark Goldblatt stated in his article “Welcome Back, My Ungrammatical Students,” in the September 03, 2013 issue of The Wall Street Journal, grammar mistakes will distract readers from trying to understand the meaning of the sentence. Hence, knowing how to write with good grammar is a necessary requirement for a qualified job candidate.
In addition, a study conducted by Alyssa Appelman & Paul Bolls and published on Newspaper Research Journal spring 2011 edition, “Article Recall, Credibility Lower with Grammar Errors,” shows that readers would perceive statistically significant 7% lower credibility when reading news article with grammar mistakes than when reading the same article with no grammar mistakes. It is reasonable to infer that grammar mistake in an email to our customer could ruin customer’s perceived credibility of the email or even of our entire firm.
Last but not least, tremendous details are included in the grammar. People need pay close attention to clauses, phrases, words, and punctuations in order to be free from grammar mistakes. Therefore, good grammar does demonstrate the personality of detail-orientation. In
From: Chris Young
Date: September 25, 2013
Re: Adding Grammar Testing to Hiring Practice
After reading Kyle Wiens’s Article, “I Won’t Hire People Who Use Poor Grammar,” in the July 20, 2012 issue of Harvard Business Review, I would like to make some suggestions on the decision of adding grammar testing to our company’s hiring practice.
Wiens has suggested two reasons why good grammar is one of the essential characteristics of a job candidate:
Good grammar reflects professionalism and trustworthiness of the candidate;
Grammar indicates how detail-oriented the candidate is.
First of all, communication is inseparable with daily operation in the form of reports, memo, and emails, with customer, co-workers, and suppliers. Good grammar is one of the fundamental requirements for effective communication. As Mark Goldblatt stated in his article “Welcome Back, My Ungrammatical Students,” in the September 03, 2013 issue of The Wall Street Journal, grammar mistakes will distract readers from trying to understand the meaning of the sentence. Hence, knowing how to write with good grammar is a necessary requirement for a qualified job candidate.
In addition, a study conducted by Alyssa Appelman & Paul Bolls and published on Newspaper Research Journal spring 2011 edition, “Article Recall, Credibility Lower with Grammar Errors,” shows that readers would perceive statistically significant 7% lower credibility when reading news article with grammar mistakes than when reading the same article with no grammar mistakes. It is reasonable to infer that grammar mistake in an email to our customer could ruin customer’s perceived credibility of the email or even of our entire firm.
Last but not least, tremendous details are included in the grammar. People need pay close attention to clauses, phrases, words, and punctuations in order to be free from grammar mistakes. Therefore, good grammar does demonstrate the personality of detail-orientation. In