Sitting at Starbucks On Sunday Afternoon Reading and Grading Essays - Sound Familiar?

By Lance Winslow Lance Winslow
Level: Diamond

Greetings to Everyone, I am a retired Franchisor, Business Consultant, Philanthropist and I run a Think Tank, as well as do a lot of Traveling, ...

A couple of days ago I was sitting out front of Starbucks, next to my electric scooter, sipping on a White Mocha Frappachino, and a couple of tables away from me was a community college literature teacher, and he was busy grading essays. We got to talking about what a challenge it was, even in the advanced English classes with the kind of work that the kids were turning in these days. And perhaps I shouldn't call them kids because these are young adults who have finished high school and are getting ready to go to a university, but have pit stopped themselves for a couple years at the community college level.

One of the biggest problems and this community college professor of literature was worried about was the coming layoffs and all the budget cuts. And I might let you know I do live in California. Unfortunately in California especially in the LA area the unemployment rate is quite high, and with that so too are the increased enrollment numbers at the community college, and all this at a time when they are cutting back, letting teachers go, increasing classroom size, and even cutting several classes from the schedule.

Many kids now will end up going to the community college for three years or even four years to get all the classes they need because they have to wait on waiting list to get certain prerequisite classes in order to graduate with their two-year degrees and they can go on. We talked about the number of students who had barely made it out of high school, and they had been ESL students during their high school days. He indicated they still weren't up to snuff, and even many of the kids that did come from English-speaking families, much of their work that they turned and was atrocious. Spelling and grammar errors, along with the occasional text message abbreviation.

I handed him an article that I read in the Wall Street Journal on March 3, 2011 which was titled "Students Struggle for Words - Business Schools Put More Emphasis on Writing Amid Employer Complaints" by Diana Middleton. In the article there was this quote "Students have to unlearn bad behavior, such as using complicated words over simple ones - 'edifice' over 'building' for instance."

Indeed, I explained to him as the coordinator for a think tank which operates online, many of our members would come up with business plans and presentations when they were seeking venture capital from an Angel investor or VC, and it was amazing how horrific their writing was. Sometimes they would use e-mail slang, text message abbreviations, or even create fancy words that didn't exist. It was hard to tell where they were coming from, and it's obvious that no investor could possibly take them seriously.

Now then, some of the concepts, inventions, and innovations were quite good, and worthy of funding, but often those who invest in such companies bet on the jockey not on the horse, and if they don't feel comfortable with the individuals involved because they can't spell, can't write, or even create an adequate abstract, mission statement, or executive summary there is just no way that's going to fly.

The community college professor indicated to me that they needed help from the business community, more funding, and better teaching at the lower levels for us to solve this problem. And it is a problem. If you think you have any solutions I hope you will e-mail me with your comments, concerns, and/or questions. In the meantime I hope you will please consider this and think on it.

Lance Winslow is the Founder of the Online Think Tank, a diverse group of achievers, experts, innovators, entrepreneurs, thinkers, futurists, academics, dreamers, leaders, and general all around brilliant minds. Lance Winslow hopes you've enjoyed today's discussion and topic. http://www.WorldThinkTank.net - Have an important subject to discuss, contact Lance Winslow.

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Article Submitted On: March 16, 2011