Grammar Essentials for Business Writing: Who or Whom?

Imagine you asked an employee to write a memo to the team about an upcoming meeting that everyone needs to attend. You get the email and have only glanced at it when you realize the employee signed off with, "be sure to bring you're pencil and paper to take notes!" It might be time to help your employees brush up on some grammar essentials.

Why is Grammar Important in a Business Setting?

The purpose of communication is for individuals to understand each other. But by not following the rules of grammar, someone can make it difficult or impossible to understand their message. There might not be serious consequences to an internal memo containing a grammatical error, but if this employee doesn't know the difference between "your" and "you're," they're likely to carry this mistake over to their writing to clients and other parts of your company. The use of proper grammar is more than just a nicety for clients. It helps to build trust.

How Can Employees Benefit from Grammar Training?

Professional development is important for employees to stay in their positions. But grammar classes might have some surprising results. The Harvard Business Review conducted a review of LinkedIn profiles, based on grammar errors. Here's what they found.

  • Grammar savvy professionals achieved higher career positions
  • Fewer grammar errors had a correlation with more promotions
  • Those with more grammar errors were more likely to frequently change jobs

It's important to remember, that correlation is not causation. In order words, superior grammar skills might not be the reason someone is more successful in their career. It could be because they have more education or more experience in business writing. However, the fact that high-achieving individuals had excellent grammar skills in common does suggest grammar has an impact on your success.

What Can Employees Learn in a Grammar Course?

All one has to do to find common grammar mistakes is load your favorite social media platform. The mistakes range from blatant misspellings where words become unrecognizable, to subtler forms of grammar eithers like "who" vs "whom" or even "less" vs "fewer". The goal of a grammar course will be to tackle common mistakes, explain why they are incorrect (for example, the above employee's memo read "be sure to bring you are pencil and paper"), and help employees to construct stronger sentences.

How Can Grammar Classes Help My Business?

Beyond building trust with your potential customers, it's not just grammar snobs you're going to appease with proper grammar. Here are some other benefits for your business that you might achieve by sending your employees to a grammar class.

  • Clearer communication: Employees will be able to understand each other better. This leads to…
  • More productivity: When an employee can't understand an email due to poor grammar it can stop their work completely. When both employees communicating know proper grammar, they can communicate more easily and won't lead to stopping and starting work to figure out what the other person is trying to say.
  • More company loyalty: Employees feel companies care about them if the company takes an interest in their professional development. A grammar class can achieve just that.
  • Improved company culture: With fewer errors, less stoppages, and employees who know their company cares about them, morale can improve and employees will be able to work faster and with fewer interruptions.

Is a Grammar Essentials Training Course Right for Your Employees?

Are you interested in investing in your employees and helping them to become more efficient? If you want to enroll your workers in a grammar essentials class, consider Infotec Training. With regular scheduling and expert instructors, there is a class to suit your needs. For more information or to schedule a training session, connect with Infotec today.

Grammar Essentials for Business Writing: Who or Whom?

For more information about Infotec or any of our programs click here: http://www.infotectraining.com/ or https://ops.infotecpro.com/course_schedule/course_schedule.cfm.

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