The High Cost of Poor Writing (About $400 Billion)
Josh Bernoff wrote a piece recently for The Daily Beast titled, Bad Writing Costs Businesses Billions. The article grabs with an amazing statistic: bad writing is costing American businesses close to $400 billion every year. That is a staggering number. Bernoff writes:
Think about it. You start your day wading through first-draft emails from colleagues who fail to come to the point. You consume reports that don’t make clear what’s happening or what your management should do about it. The websites, marketing materials, and press releases from your suppliers are filled with jargon and meaningless superlatives.
This resonated with me. I am on a mission to ruthlessly, creatively and intelligently improve my own writing. Hopefully, that will spread because according to Bernoff, American workers spend nearly a quarter of their day reading. Much of that is wasted because the material is poorly written. Bernoff has done the math:
American workers spend 22 percent of their work time reading; higher compensated workers read more. According to my analysis, America is spending 6 percent of total wages on time wasted attempting to get meaning out of poorly written material. Every company, every manager, every professional pays this tax, which consumes $396 billion of our national income.
He illustrates the problem with this mind numbing job description example:
The Area Vice President, Enterprise Customers will develop and manage a sustainable strategic relationship that transforms the current commercial model by creating joint value that results in the ongoing reduction of costs, continuous process improvement, growth and profitability for both partners with the ability to export key learnings.
Such language is not only poor and embarrassing, it also grates. Kaleigh Moore wrote an article on business writing in Inc. earlier this year. It examined a related aspect of poor business writing. She makes the case that communication “is an essential skill for any business.” This seems obvious and even fundamental, but apparently it is not. Moore cites a study from CollegeBoard, a panel established by the National Commission on Writing. It shows that:
Businesses are spending as much as $3.1 billion on remedial writing training annually. Of this budget, $2.9 billion was spent on current employees–not new hires.”
This is not attributed entirely to our early years in the education system because “even a college degree doesn’t save businesses from the effects of poor writing skills.”
A report from the Partnership for 21st-Century Skills notes that 26.2 percent of college students had deficient writing skills. These educated folks “also lacked proper communication skills across the board.”
This should come as no surprise. Writing makes you a better reader and conversationalist. It can also improve your presentation skills. Writing, reading, conversing and presenting all contribute to knowledge and confidence. That makes for a much resilient, more innovative and efficient workforce.
Carolyn O’Hara is the Managing Editor of The Week and tackled the subject of business writing in Harvard Business Review. Her piece, How to Improve Your Business Writing, is practical. She paraphrases Marvin Swift who said, “clear writing means clear thinking.”
Kara Blackburn, a senior lecturer in managerial communication at the MIT Sloan School of Management is quoted in same piece saying:
You can have all the great ideas in the world and if you can’t communicate, nobody will hear them.
That is so true. I have witnessed too many of my clients making the mistake of not only assuming they have been heard but that they have also been understood. Too frequently, neither has taken place.
O’Hara lays out sound advice:
- Think before you write: don’t start writing on the spark of an idea. Talk it through in your own mind before words flow on paper.
- Be direct: make your point right up front. It will guide everything after. I think of this as a thesis statement to be proved or disproved.
- Cut the fat: avoid the unnecessary and build up the necessary but not with more words. Do it with more emphasis…there is a difference.
- Avoid jargon and $10 words: I used to believe I was paid by high-sounding words. I know now it is about being convincing and not trying to impress.
- Read what you write: I agree but recommend reading it out loud. I am often embarrassed when I hear the words. Equally so, I am happy when they are edited for greater impact.
- Practice every day: We write something every day but I also advocate walking away from that book, article, blog, or report. After all, athletes do not train the same muscles each and every day.
Josh Bernoff has his own advice for better business writing. He suggests “The Iron Imperative” which is:
Treat the reader’s time as more valuable than your own. To embrace it means that every time you send an email or write a document, you must take a moment to structure it for maximum readability and meaning. We are lazy; we’d rather save our own time than someone else’s.
That is very true. It is far easier to press “send” than to edit again.
So there you have it, poor business writing costs businesses big dollars both in inefficiencies and lost sales. We can all do better.
Famous advertising professional, David Ogilvy, had it right:
People who think well, write well… Good writing is not a natural gift. You have to learn to write well.
We are taking writing for granted. It is just something we do and not always do well. It’s time for this to change.
