There is a lot of talk about Generation Y and the
quality of their writing skills. The talk is mostly bad. Teachers and business organizations claim
that the writing skills of young adults today have significantly deteriorated
from previous generations. The claim is that technology and a fast-paced lifestyle
in the United States is to blame. Spellcheck and other programs on the computer
will fix small and potentially embarrassing spelling and grammatical errors,
allowing students to rely on the technology and not their own knowledge of the
English language when proofreading their work.
Fast-paced life in the United States has also been blamed, with many stating
that young adults have shorter attention spans and are less interested in fully
analyzing and creating in depth writing explanations. Is this true?
What kind of impact does this have on the communications industry? It is important to look at both sides of the
argument before drawing a conclusion.
In my analysis of the situation, I found that there
has indeed been some decline in writing quality from Generation Y. If there was no decline in the writing
ability of young adults today, there wouldn’t be so many articles and blogs
discussing the issue. I can also say that as a recent college graduate from a
top level University, I was astonished at the poor quality of some people’s writing skills,
which I discovered during peer review exercises in my freshman, sophomore, junior and even
senior-level writing courses. Some were
very good, but there were some that made me think, “How did this person get admitted
to this University?” There were grammatical errors, run-on sentences that
looked like paragraphs, paragraphs that were over a page long and quite
frankly, writing that made no sense at all.
Teachers in a recent Pew research study are agreeing
with the noted decline in writing quality, as one experienced English teacher
states that she “teaches accelerated students, but has noted a marked decline
in the depth and analysis of their written work.” The teachers surveyed claimed
that their students don’t understand how to pull useful information from their
research to put into their writing, resulting in surface content that is
useless.
Something I found interesting while doing research on
this topic is that Generation Y writes more than any previous generation. However, the style of writing they are doing
has changed. I discovered that while this
group might not be writing essays or novels, they are great at writing in
social media form and blog posts, and they do it all the time. In a 2009 article by Kaila Krayewski, a
writer for suite101.com, she states, “Ninety percent of Gen Yers in the US own a PC, while 82
percent own a mobile. And, perhaps not surprisingly, they spend more time
online than they do watching TV.” According
to a 2012 Forrester survey, the percentage of Generation Y that owns a mobile
has skyrocketed to 97% -- Generation Y is also far more likely than any other
age category to own a Smartphone. It’s quite common for Generation Y to prefer
to do their social media writing directly from their Smartphone, rather than
using a PC.
Contrary
to some opinions, there is evidence that Gen Y frequently uses online writing
for intense, thoughtful debate – not meaningless, lazy rants filled with
grammatical errors. Prime examples are political opinions during the 2012
Presidential election, the current economic crisis, environmental issues, and
general online debate. Many of these
arguments are articulate and well written, using correct grammar. Their writing
does not mimic that of short hand text messages with no structure, which is a
common misperception.
Popular
blog writer Penelope Trunk has stated that Generation Y is comprised of great
writers. She argues in favor of the new generation when she states,
“Information is changing, the flow of ideas is changing, and written
communication is changing with it. Information overload is the feeling of not
being able to deal with this change. Young people do not feel information
overload, which is another sign that they are excellent writers for the new
millennium: They can process and communicate new ideas at the new pace.” Trunk makes a good point that Generation Y does
not get as stressed because of rapid changes, since they grew up in the online
culture that moves at a fast pace. I
agree with Trunk’s opinion that the new generation has the advantage of being
used to the fast pace of the communications industry, but I still have mixed
feelings overall -- there is a lot more to writing in the communications
industry than the pace at which you can write.
There are
really two questions to be answered: what is the quality of Generation Y’s
writing overall, and what is the quality of Generation Y’s writing in terms of
the communications industry? On the one
hand, they are significantly better at writing for social media, blogs, and
debates, and seem comfortable in engaging in this type of writing. All of these styles of writing require
attention to detail and correct grammar.
Where there seems to be a gap is when the writer needs to slow down and do the quality research and
critical thinking that is needed to write articles, white papers, and other in
depth writing projects, including the types of writing demanded from
communications professionals that would best serve their clients. A Pew research study discussed in The New
York Times article “Technology Changing How Students Learn, Teachers Say”
stated that, “Adding to this problem is what is called a ‘Wikipedia problem’
where students become accustomed to finding quick answers on the internet and
76 percent of teachers believed students had been conditioned by the internet
to find quick answers.” If you are a
journalist for a major publication, you must have high quality writing skills
-- those in the communications industry who are writing feature articles, press
releases or even pitching stories to reporters need to also have quality
writing skills to gain the attention of these journalists and editors. This requires patience and attention to
detail as well as the ability to work at a fast pace and absorb new information
easily and quickly.
To sum
this all up, Generation Y has the advantage of being accustomed to writing at a
fast pace, which is needed in the communications industry, but they should improve
upon their in depth analysis skills and research to ensure they integrate the
content and thoughtfulness needed for effective professional writing.
I
would love to hear the opinions of PR professionals and Human Resource
professionals on the quality of the
writing they are seeing from entry level applicants over the last five or so
years. For more information on this
topic, and to discover how we can leverage our team’s expert writing skills to
help you capture the attention of your target audience, please contact me at Thomas@adviceunlimited.net.
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