Why should a person care about better writing (and writing better) or about hiring better writers? It’s a valid question, especially when recruiters – purportedly seeking to hire writers – post the following job advertisement: “There has been an explosion in the need for online writers, regardless of skill. These companies are more interested in your honest genuine opinions when you’re writing blog entries about their company… not if you are a very talented writer.”
While I have seen such statements and their derivatives in the past, they never lose their ability to make me gape in astonishment. I’m not necessarily astonished by the disregard for writing abilities, although that’s a small part of it. The astonishment is more personal than that. I read those statements, and I find them to be a questioning of the time and energy people put into becoming better writers. Such statements, when accepted without question, tend to encourage negative results: low wages for writers and a continued lowering of writing standards.
The statements, unfortunately, rarely are combatted. People do apply for and accept those low-wage writing jobs, which only makes finding work for a writer who knows his or her worth and charges accordingly that much harder. Companies do hire people who aren’t skilled writers. Can some of those skills be taught? Of course. I’m not saying that companies need to hire polished writers. They need to hire people who care about their writing and who want to improve their writing so that they can express their ideas in the best way possible. Honest, genuine opinions may be what companies want, but do they really think those opinions are best served by someone who lacks writing or communication skills? Does the upcoming generation of writers want to work for pittance? I doubt it, and that’s why I am going to continue attempting to write better and encouraging others both to write better and to cherish better writing.
Photo: visual pun.ch (CC BY-SA 2.0)
Great point Erin. Companies need to express their value, their values, their ideas, their story and so much more. So in an age where content is king, good writing becomes a strategically valuable skill. At the same time, writers really have to step up their game. Good writing has to be accompanied by strategic thinking that supports the company’s business objectives.It’s more responsibility, but I think there’s also more opportunity.
barrettrossie I like to refer to those things as creative constraints. Writers live within them and push against them. It creates a necessary tension and helps lead to some creative breakthroughs.I know I’m becoming known as Write Right and one of the go-to sources for grammar, but that’s just a small part of the Write Right story. I encourage writing right because it helps to communicate those objectives and strategies.