Bad spelling does not preclude a punchy writing style. Strange but true. Yet it does mount the shoddiness because good writing is not just a matter of neat presentation. What kind of impression do you get when you see printed material or official correspondence peppered with mistakes?
Now imagine recruiting managers reading a covering letter in response to a job vacancy. Don't you think that applicants who write well have a definite edge over gobbledygook? And that's besides the notorious confusion between where/were, their/there, misplaced apostrophes and the incorrect use of capital letters when writing in English, which is likely to be the case since most business correspondence in Malta is not done in Maltese. It's no surprise to hear of jobseekers who botch their opportunities of being short-listed, and possibly jeopardising a promotion at a later stage.
A letter of application has to be error-free in all aspects. So re-reading it is a must because mistakes also include typos typically made in a nanosecond of distraction or mind-wandering. In fact, it's best to ask someone else to go over it since another pair of eyes safeguards against the "blindness" that so often occurs when reading one's own words. Indeed this is the kind of situation where simple basics count a great deal, meaning there is no point in asking advice from relatives or friends who don't have the expertise.
Yes, those red and green snakes indicating spelling and grammar errors respectively on a computer screen do help. But they are not foolproof! If in doubt, especially as regards style and presentation, prospective applicants should seek the help of recruitment agencies. Ditto for compiling a curriculum vitae. Today, post-specific CVs single out promising candidates in the first phase of recruitment.
It is sad that 10 years are sometimes not enough to grasp the knack of structuring sentences to write something as brief and as basic as a letter of application and accompanying curriculum vitae when models of both are so easily available. Although there are many teachers who guide their fifth and sixth formers, it still boggles the brain to see scores of school leavers in the dark - pointing to the need for some urgent remedial action, possibly in the form of a power-point presentation backed by an illustrated leaflet/handout which students can keep for future reference.
The ability to read and write clearly and coherently is the least we expect from unimpaired children given that they have gone through at least 10 years of mandatory primary and secondary schooling. In fact, together with numeracy, these are the basic skills which schools are responsible for. Year after year, however, examiners at all levels moan and groan at a heap of howlers: grammar, word order, spelling, punctuation, paragraphing and meagre vocabulary. The inability to express oneself in writing stumps a good number of students including those taking English at A-Level. Yet, these are the ones who are meant to have a relatively high degree of proficiency.
Students feel their confidence dropping to sub-zero when faced with the wording of an assignment they don't understand and/or which they have little idea of how to tackle. The same depressing picture looms at university. Effective writing skills should be a basic entry requirement, but get talking to the dons and you're in for some shocking revelations about several scripts they have to plough through. Post-graduation: mumbling, bumbling graduates fall into the trap of a skills gap barely bettering school leavers.
A lack of articulation points to an overload of fuzzy thinking and chronic laziness. The combo is exacerbated by the dumping of grammar learning as well as fuelled by text messaging, a fill-in-the-blanks/tick box culture, a lack of reading, image blasting and internet plagiarism. Our rampant code-switching adds sulphur to sore wounds. Factor in the tortuous speaking style of some of our media personalities and big heads and we are slapped in the face with verbal diarrhoea.
No wonder plummeting standards bedevil even top schools, although it would be unfair to state that the picture is totally bleak. Practice pumped up by reading and more reading helps students to write well. They also need to be shown how to latch on to the key words/phrases in a question so as to give themselves instant focus and direction. They need to be guided through the many ways of linking paragraphs and building up a logical, sequential flow of ideas. All this is pertinent to writing short answers, essays, reports and letters, even though each demand a specific layout and word target.
Progress at school charts an increasing knowledge of transferable and functional skills such as comprehension, communication and writing. Therefore, addressing shortcomings at sixth form or even at university is not an ideal to aspire to. This is why early implementation of literacy strategies requires constant monitoring and fine-tuning. It is also heartening to see initiatives offering basic skills to youngsters who got bogged down by a totally negative school experience.
All this smacks of a classroom scenario. But if anyone out there believes that our symphony of gizmos is erasing the need to write fluently, s/he couldn't be more mistaken. Writing with flair is not merely an academic issue. It is one of the driving forces revving up our social, economic and cultural future. Zero into the business world, and the art of persuasion - that's super subtle communication - is what clinches the deal and hikes the profits.