Kudos, Bob, for bringing up the necessity of proper, or at least passable, writing skills. I'm amazed by some of the resume cover letters that cross my desk written by supposedly highly educated people. They are not helping themselves at all by making that kind of first impression.

Layoff the guy about the writing. People are so busy today. People make mistakes because they don't have time to check their work. Just FYI...sales people have the worst writing skills.

"Layoff the guy about the writing. People are so busy today. People make mistakes because they don't have time to check their work."

The writer asked for career advice, and that's what Bob gave him. In fact, it was probably more important than what asked about.

In my humble opinion, accepting one's own poor writing skills or making excuses for them, is a clear sign of laziness, a lack of self respect, and a lack of respect for the target audience. What "break" does anyone have a right to demand of their readers?

Bob has it exactly right, and did the writer a favor. Furthermore, he did it tactfully and in a kindly manner.

It always amazes me. Here you have a source of high quality, intelligent, experienced, free advice. Then the requestor fails to even make the effort to appear intelligible and professional. What kind of message is this??

The orginal post consisted of 5 sentences, and that counts the "Dear Bob" as a sentence! How much time and effort does it take to compose 5 sentences?

I also frequently hear the "I'm an immigrant and my English language skills are weak" refrain. Regardless of the source of the weakness, working on that will make you more employable.

And when you get the chance to ask a leading industry figure like Bob, try to act like the answer means something to you.

I agree, whole heartedly, with Brian.

Sloppy writing doesn't necessarily mean sloppy thinking but if all someone has to base their opinion of you is your writing, they can only come to one conclusion. A well written memo will also reduce the chances of deliberate or accidental misinterpretation of what you wrote.

Re-reading your post for typos that are disguised as other words ("goof," for example) helps you look professional as well.

This person is not thinking of seeking an MBA to actually learn specific skills; if he was, there would be no question about which concentration is “best”. He is implying (and I am inferring) that he wishes to determine which degree is most sought-after and/or marketable. The most important skill a person can have is the ability to communicate clearly and effectively. Even a top degree from a top school will not get you hired if you cannot communicate well.

When you don’t take the time to write clearly, effectively, and actually spell out words you are using you are sending a signal to the recipient that you just don’t care. Therefore, did this person even care about what Bob had to say?

I agree with Stu. Writing skills are critical for everyone, not just because your written words often are the opportunity to make your first impression, but because it's not asking too much of anyone to learn how to express themselves properly in English. And there's simply no excuse when English is your native language.

It doesn't mean you have to write like William Shakespeare, but in these days of spelling and grammar checkers, to claim you "don't have time" to check your work is inexcusably lazy. Reminds me of the moron professional customers a friend of mine who used to run an ISP had - he would send out emails warning them that the servers were going down at 3am on a given date for scheduled maintenance, and then people would call him screaming that the servers went down in the middle of their trying to work. No, they didn't read the emails, they "didn't have time for that." It takes less time, one assumes, to call the ISP and yell at him for one's own personal irresponsbility than it is to read the very few emails he sent to his clientele.

Thanks for saying what many of us only wish we could say Bob. I do not consider myself a "good" writer or even all that smart by any stretch but here in Florida (perhaps elsewhere as well), the kids are pouring out of high schools with degrees - but they can't perform the most menial of tasks; adding up a short column of numbers, writing up a request for service that can be read and understood, making change - even speaking properly. This state has mandated that a certain percentage of students WILL graduate and they do - but it does not mean that they should or even could under their own steam. What this may affect in the future is hard to say but I can not imagine that it will yield better employees, services or goods - just less threatening (to co-workers and management) ones. The phrase I keep hearing quoted has to do with "dumbing down" whatever it may be. Once you experience a FTF with many recent Florida graduates you quickly see WHY things are being dumbed down; they HAVE to be so that these people can cope. It's deplorable and embarrassing to witness but telling one of these guys, "sorry, you're much too dumb to work for me" is a fast track to one's own demise, no matter how you word it. A diploma should be earned by and not simply given to students. IF they can't cut it, I am afraid I have no answers but lowering standards until ANYBODY can graduate as they've done here is certainly NOT the answer, IMO. Ask any recent Florida high school graduate what they think - or better, IF they think. You'd better use no more than two syllable words though or you'll likely generate a blank stare while the student forms a silly looking "O" with their lips. No kidding - I've seen it and too many times for comfort.

Please continue to tell it just like it is. Bravo.

At least the line from the immigrant indicates that they know that there is a current problem, and may mean that they are working on it.
I would be glad to hire him/her with a request to continue working on the prime language.

The "lay off" guy shows no knowledge of the problem. I would not want to hire such a person as they may well be unteachable, since they already know everything!

I can't think of a more perfect response to Bob's constructive criticism than GeorgeC's rejoinder, which confuses "layoff" with "lay off." That one little space sure can change the meaning, no? Kind of like one little decimal point for the CPAs and engineers, or one little semicolon for the coders.

There's one additional point that really needs to be driven home on this subject. When the lazy/sloppy/careless/non-English-speaking/etc. writer creates a document that gives instructions that are incomprehensible or even worse, send the reader to do the wrong thing, how many of the "lay off the poor guy" people are going to be feeling so charitable. Let one of these goofs down your entire network or crash your payroll system and THEN tell me how happy you are to hire them.