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By Steve Brearton
Illustration: Seth
Spell check
Poor business communication skills are more than an irritant; misspelled words, poor grammar and an inability to write effectively can impact on a firm’s bottom line.
4.2 Number of times the average work memo is rewritten, according to a study by Personnel Journal.
12 Average in seconds a businessperson spends deciding whether to read or discard a memo, e-mail or report, according to US academic Phil Venditti.
14 Percentage of each work week wasted because of poor communication between workers and managers, according to a 1998 temp agency study.
41 Percentage of senior managers in a 2004 European study who considered poor grammar from junior staff to demonstrate “laziness or disrespect.”
50+ Percentage of e-mailers who said their business correspondence was misunderstood, according to a recent survey.
81 Percentage of European workers in 2004 who had “negative feelings” toward those who composed badly written e-mails.
79 Percentage of executives in a 1984 US study who said writing is the most neglected business skill.
66 Percentage of employers, according to a 1989 Conference Board of Canada study, who said illiterate employees were a “significant obstacle to running their businesses.”
1,000 Figure in dollars Canada’s Spar Aerospace dedicated to boosting literacy skills of each engineer in 1989; as one manager noted, “none of them can spell.”
1996 Year Claire and Gordon May released Effective Writing: Handbook for Accountants. | 
