Writing Skills

I am currently serving on the Blues Ambassador Scholarship Committee for the International House of Blues Foundation in Cleveland. Yesterday and this morning, I reviewed twenty or so applications from area high school students to determine which of them should receive a $10,000 college scholarship.

The application requires the students to write an essay, and as a former English major, I cannot overlook grammar and form. I am pleased to report that this year's applicants have done a much better job than last year's, but I am still appalled at the number of grammatical errors and improper use of language in the majority of the essays - essays written by students with GPAs of 3.5 and above, who have placed on merit and honor rolls at their schools and who have completed Advanced Placement English classes!

Perhaps I am being too picky, but it is just so hard for me to accept that these students should be graduating from high school with less than exemplary communication skills. Reading and writing are fundamental for ANY job. If you can read and write well, you can learn to do anything.

I have known hiring managers to discard resumes upon discovering one grammatical error in a cover letter, and I have done so myself. After all, if you can't achieve perfection when you are selling yourself, how sloppy will you be when representing the organization?

Think about it.

Cindi