Most people don’t write well. They lack sufficient skill. Don’t question this, I know what I’m talking about.
I’m paid both to evaluate the writing of others and to write for publication (professors must publish or perish). After years of requiring writing assignments in my accounting and general business courses, I have concluded that those opting into accounting are worse writers than most other students. After graduation, writing skills remain lacking because accountants do not pursue professional development in writing.
It wouldn’t be a problem if bad writers didn’t write. They have to, however, because in today’s social media world business professionals (including accountants) write more than ever before.
The problem is exacerbated when bad writers believe they are better writers than they actually are. Instead of avoiding advanced writing tasks that result in failure, they rush to volunteer for such opportunities. Qué pena.
Tom Johnson at I’d Rather Be Writing, authors my favorite blog on writing. He provides insight into this problem in a recent post, “What Does It Mean to Know How to Write?” His key contribution, in my opinion, is organizing typical writing tasks into a writing spectrum.
Image credit: Tom Johnson of I'd Rather Be Writing
Johnson explains that various writing tasks require different level of skill. The simplest writing tasks–texts, e-mails, PowerPoint slides and tweets–don’t need much writing skill. Much of the time, professionals who are bad writers can perform such tasks successfully.
On the other end of the writing spectrum, there are writing tasks needing, “… original idea development, organization of lengthy arguments, style and flow and voice, and a host of other elements that require more advanced abilities.” When most professionals attempt tasks requiring lots of writing ability, lack of writing skill results in embarrassment and loss of clients. [And how!]
There are two ways to mitigate the problem. The first is to have one’s writing skill professionally assessed. Armed with an honest appraisal of writing ability, professionals then can avoid tasks for which they are unqualified. The second is for professionals to seek continuing education in writing.
I vote for improvement through continuing education.
Debit and credit – - David Albrecht
I agree with Jim Peterson that it helps to work at writing under the tutelage of someone else who knows how to write. Unfortunately, if we keep self selecting poor writers into auditing, how will we get better writers? There is no one above us to help us improve on that front.
I consider myself better-than-average accountant writer, but I still get plenty of review notes on letters before they get sent to clients. Being able to communicate concisely and professionally IS a type of writing that auditing firms try to develop. But lengthy essays defending a view point? We don’t have enough of those to practice on to develop any real skill at it anyway.
Dave –
Nice piece — but the prescriptions for the profession are daunting.
Having wound up to my surprise as “a words guy around a numbers business” — after being an English Lit major off to law school — I’ve been thought of as an anomaly — except on scrutiny of my personal background: summer jobs in high school, writing for my hometown newspaper, and then having the opportunity of a secondary school where we wrote in most classes on a daily basis.
In short — and invoking the ’10,000 hour rule” spelled out in Malcolm Gladwell’s “Outliers” — excellence in writing depends crucially on the long and grinding apprenticeship — no different from the early career-building of a concert pianist or a helicopter pilot or a trial lawyer or a relief pitcher– or, for that matter, a truly excellent auditor. There is simply no substitute for the necessary hours of working through the details until they are embedded as part of the toolkit.
So — probably pessimistically — by the time of professional maturity, that opportunity has passed by (not that mitigating help should be disregarded).
Regards –
What’s most disconcerting about the issue is that accounting is, by its nature, a communicative profession. Accountants communicate financial information and – yes – this means writing, not just numbers.
What would continuing education in writing skills look like for a practicing accountant or professor?