The Cost of Bad Writing

Enough with the passive voice!

My students know that I’m a stickler for good writing. When they ask me why I’m so picky, my answer usually boils down to something that’s logically akin to, “Because I said so.”

I know that the ability to write effectively has helped my career. But is it really so important in today’s world of instant communications? Only if you want to save $400 billion a year.

Josh Bernoff, the owner of WOBS LLC, recently published his survey of 547 business professionals who write “at least two hours per week for work, excluding e-mail”. Bernoff’s findings make a clear and compelling case for teaching – and mastering — effective writing skills. His key findings:

• Reading and writing is a full-time job. Bernoff’s respondents – most of whom were not full-time editors or writers – spend about 25.5 hours reading and 20.4 hours writing each week.
• Though we complain about e-mail, it takes up only about a third of our reading and writing time. We spend far more time writing and reading memos, blog posts, web content, press releases, speeches, and so on.
• We think we’re pretty good; everybody else sucks. On an effectiveness scale of 1 to 10 (with 10 being totally effective), professionals rate their own writing at 6.9. They rate writing prepared by others at 5.4.
• We agree on the Big 5. A majority of respondents thought the following issues contributed most to making written content “significantly less effective”: 1) too long; 2) poorly organized; 3) unclear; 4) too much jargon; 5) not precise enough.
• We waste a lot of time. For all respondents, 81% agreed or strongly agreed with the statement “Poorly written material wastes a lot of my time”. For managers, directors, and supervisors, the figure is 84%.
• We want feedback but have a hard time getting it. Only 49% of all respondents – and 41% of managers, directors, and supervisors – agree with the statement, “I get the feedback I need to make my writing better.”
• Professionals want to write better but are constrained by jargon, passive voice, corporate bullshit and “…the number of people who still think writing is more about making them sound important …” than communicating clearly.

Bernoff rolls all the numbers together and concludes that, “…America is spending 6 percent of total wages on time wasted attempting to get meaning out of poorly written material.” The total cost? About $400 billion.

(You can find Bernoff’s white paper and infographics here. Brief summaries in the popular press also appear here and here).

Bernoff calculates the cost of wasted time. But what’s the direct cost? How much do we spend teaching our employees to write well? Bernoff doesn’t address this specifically but I found a College Board survey from 2004 that digs into the question. The survey went to 120 American companies associated with the College Board’s Business Roundtable. The result? American companies – excluding government agencies and nonprofits – spend about $3.1 billion annually “remedying deficiencies in writing”.

The College Board study also cites an April 2003 white paper titled, “The Neglected ‘R’: The Need For a Writing Revolution.” The conclusion of that study was simple: “Writing today is not a frill for the few, but an essential skill for the many.”

In 2006, The Conference Board picked up a similar theme in a report that asked a simple question: “Are They Ready To Work?” The survey asked companies about the most important skills that newly minted graduates should have. It then asked respondents to grade the skills of newly hired employees. Graduates of two- and four-year college programs were rated “deficient” in three areas: 1) Written communications, and 2) Writing in English; 3) Leadership.

Business leaders agree that writing is an important skill. We can cite studies going back more than a decade that suggest we’re doing a poor job teaching the skill. Bernoff’s study suggests we’re not doing any better today – in fact, we may be doing worse. What to do? We need to invest more time, energy, and effort teaching the “neglected R”. Or you could just hire me.