Bad Writing

[Edrof]

I see a lot of poor writing out there in the wild—especially from small businesses. I see billboards, product information and expensive websites that haven’t even been proofread, never mind professionally written. For example, I’ve just been perusing a national company’s site—probably the largest in its field—and the writing is shocking (this company is in the education sector, ironically). This frustrates me because most writers are actually cheap and good copy always looks far more professional than DIY copy. Not only that, but often the writing can be re-used over and over again.

CVs are a problem, too. The ones I see through a friend in recruitment are almost always, not just poor, but exceptionally poor. New jobs can be life-changing and bring a substantial raise yet most people don’t even consider a writer.

So can anyone enlighten me why this is? Do those that do it themselves imagine writers to be too expensive? Or is it a case of incompetence not recognising itself? Lastly, has anyone NOT used a company because their standard of writing is low?

 

[Edrof]

Some fascinating replies, thank you chaps!

** Removed ** .

Please hook me up with some of that sweet, sweet cardboard action, Evole.

I think that's a good thing. Using a writer is basically cheating. People should write things themselves so their illiteracy can be gauged accurately. I'd be pretty annoyed if someone showcased impeccable language in their CV and letters, only to find out they're borderline illiterate.

Very interesting, Asim. Obviously I'm biased, but I think it actually shows initiative, drive and delegation skills instead. Plus, if my CV was terribly written I'd take the chance of getting someone else to run through it as a poor document will likely be binned in the first place.

Text is one of the most basic foundations of any business. One of the most primitive building blocks, it forms one of the cornerstones of your company because it's what every single one of your customers see. Whether it be a flyer, a website, a billboard, an ad in the corner of a random website, it's the very first impression that people will have of your company, before even picking up a phone or sending an email. I really struggle to get my head around how companies can be so sloppy and still think they're going to get away with their rubbish forms of writing. Any half educated person will take one look at all the typos, poor sentences and incorrectly used words and run a mile, myself included.

If you, as a business, can't even get the most basic, fundamental core of your business right, why the hell would anyone think that you're even remotely competent in the business you're trying to grow?

This is exactly my thinking, too.

 

[Edrof]

Does raise the question of how can one improve their writing skills?

Reading more?

Writing more. I maintain that few people can write perfectly all the time (including me) because the rules of our language are extremely complicated and often illogical. It's also difficult to proofread your own work, if it's long.

The irony being that the thread title: "Bad Writing" should not have both words capitalised.... it is not a name. "Bad writing" would be correct.

I was going to point out your mistake but others have already jumped on it!

Needed that laugh, thanks.

Been a busy day so far with, y'know, all the writing that I'm being paid for.

Fiction writers might have it hard. Good commercial writers... not so much.

Do you write copy?

 

[Edrof]

Yep, run a business writing copy for digital and print alongside DFY sales funnel construction and all that stuff.

Excellent! Do you mind if I pick your brains sometime? We could become writing friends and chat about relative pronouns and other cool stuff.

You must cringe all day reading through this forum then.

Actually, I don't! The standard of written English to be found here must be much higher than the internet's average. Also, I don't expect everyone to proofread forum posts as it's informal communication and, besides, posting from tablets and mobiles can be a pain anyway.