In Part 1, we examined error studies of writing during three decades of the 20^th Century: 1917, the late 1930s, and 1986. We found that the nature of the errors shifted slightly–even though the primary errors were with comma usage, pronouns, spelling/misused words, verb tense–but the incidence of errors held steady, at about 2.1-2.2 errors per 100 words. This indicated that writers were not making more errors, just various mixtures of many of the same errors.

But what about today?

Andrea A. Lunsford and Karen J. Lunsford conducted a similar study in 2006, with a sample of 877 papers. The results came in as follows:

1. Wrong word
2. Missing comma after introductory element
3. Incomplete or missing [research] documentation
4. Pronoun reference
5. Spelling error (including words pronounced the same way but having different meaning)
6. Quotation error
7. Unnecessary comma
8. Capitalization
9. Missing word
10. Faulty sentence structure

The number of errors per 100 words increased by less than 2% from the 1986 study. Therefore, the ubiquity of errors is holding steady and has been for the last 100 years. The major error patterns remain largely the same.

For businesses that rely on written communication–the vast majority of them–employees’ writing ability is critical to maintaining credibility and professionalism. Shoddy writing is the first thing that will scare off prospects. High-quality, error-free writing is still the realm of trained professionals. If a business doesn’t have the resources to maintain a staff of trained, talented writers, it pays to keep in mind that amateur writers produce amateur results, and professional writers produce professional results.

Source: Lunsford, Andrea A. and Karen J. Lunsford. “Mistakes Are a Fact of Life: a National Comparative Study.” College Composition and Communication 59 (June 2008): 781-806.

Many people speculate that writing is getting worse. Employers lament the ubiquity of text-speak and inappropriate informality in professional communication from new college graduates. Grammarians gnash their teeth at the downturn in writing quality across the board. But is it true? While it is true that technology is changing how human beings interact, the effect on the English language is being played out even now. Language, as well as our use of it, evolves continuously, and the only time a language ever stops evolving is when it dies (e.g., Latin).

Linguistic studies at various years in the 20^th century and today reveal some surprising facts about the way college students have used English in previous decades. We can extrapolate about the quality of writing of recent college graduates based on the quality of their college-level writing. As college graduates enter the work force, their employers will quickly discover the level of their abilities.

Below are the results of linguistic studies performed throughout the 20^th century.

The first study was done by Roy Ivan Johnson in 1917, reporting on a 198 papers. His list of top 10 error patterns is:

1. Spelling
2. Capitalization
3. Punctuation (mostly comma errors)
4. Careless omission or repetition
5. Apostrophe errors
6. Pronoun agreement
7. Verb tense errors and agreement
8. Ungrammatical sentence structure (fragments and run-ons)
9. Mistakes in the use of adverbs and adjectives
10. Mistakes in the use of prepositions and conjunctions.

The second study under consideration here is one performed by John C. Hodges in the late 1930s, reporting on a sample of 20,000 papers.

1. Shortage of commas
2. Spelling
3. Exactness
4. Subject-verb agreement
5. Superfluous commas
6. Reference of pronouns
7. Apostrophes
8. Omission of words
9. Wordiness
10. Good use

The third study was conducted in 1986 by Robert J. Connors and Andrea A. Lunsford with a sample of 3,000 papers.

1. No comma after introductory element
2. Vague pronoun reference
3. No comma in compound sentence
4. Wrong word
5. No comma in non-restrictive element
6. Wrong/missing inflected endings
7. Wrong or missing preposition
8. Comma splice
9. Possessive apostrophe error
10. Verb tense shift

By looking at these lists, one can conclude that writers are making mostly the same errors across the decades; commas and punctuation, spelling and word usage, pronoun reference, and verb tense make all three lists.

Yet, grammarians, employers, and writing instructors should take heart in the following statistic. In all three studies, the number of errors that appear per 100 words is 2.1-2.2. In other words, while the nature of the errors shifted slightly, the number of errors remained the same. The oft-trumpeted decline of writing skills appears to be a myth, at least over the course of the 20^th century.

But do these results hold now, a decade into the 21^st? In Part 2, we’ll look at how these results compare with those of a couple of decades into the Computer Age. And we’ll also take a look at what this all means for businesses that rely on written communication (i.e., nearly all of them).

Source: Connors, Robert J. and Andrea A. Lunsford. “Frequency of Formal Errors in College Writing.” College Composition and Communication 39 (Dec. 1988): 395-409.

Most people believe that English grammar is simply English grammar. There is a right way and a wrong way to construct a sentence, a right place and a wrong place to put a comma, words that go together and words that don’t. For the most part, this is true. There are dozens, perhaps hundreds, of tiny rules that native speakers instinctively know and follow when communicating. What most people don’t realize is how mutable some of these rules are, and how others are not, and where the differences lie.

For example, did you know that types of adjectives are nearly always used in a certain order? Take a look at this phrase: the big yellow Chinese vase. There are three adjectives, big, yellow, and Chinese, all of which describe a vase. Try speaking the same phrase with the adjectives in a different order.

On the other hand, consider the sentence, “We might could go out tonight.” It sounds strange to a large portion of the English-speaking world, because there are two modal verbs, might and could, when normally only one is allowed. However, to natives of the American South, it sounds perfectly fine, and, in fact, carries shades of meaning that are different from either of the phrases might go or could go. If meaning is accurately conveyed, isn’t it still “proper English?”

Native speakers process hundreds of little rules like this every day when giving and receiving communication. The biggest discrepancies and missteps come when inexperienced writers confuse writing with speaking. The rules of effective writing are considerably more restricted than rules for effective spoken communication.

Dialects

And what about dialect? We seldom think of ourselves as speaking a dialect, but linguists have identified 27 distinct English dialects in the United States alone. When we look at the larger English-speaking world—Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, South Africa, Jamaica, among others—the number of dialects goes up considerably.

All of these different dialects exhibit small variations in word placement, use of verbs, words distinct to that dialect, use of idioms, and all of them are 100% intelligible to other speakers of that dialect. Furthermore, nearly all of them are intelligible to speakers of other dialects, at least mostly. In writing, all those dialects come together much more understandably, because a reader doesn’t have to process variation in pronunciation.

So which ones are “wrong?” What, then, is “proper English?” Scholars and linguists—even kings—have been trying to pin that down since the Middle Ages. In spite of untold effort that the English-speaking world has applied to this question since the earliest dictionaries were written in the 16^th century, the best that we have achieved is a perception of what is “proper English.” The disconcerting thing is that the way the language is used seems to change faster than grammarians can keep up.

Two grammar camps

Linguists divide grammar into two camps.

Prescriptive grammar is what your high school English teacher taught you. This is the set of standards that professional writers accept, that appear in grammar books and references, that appear in dictionaries and thesauri. The thing that the strictest grammarians try not to notice is that even these rules are remarkably fluid, even more so when one crosses national boundaries. These differences between proper English grammar in England and proper English grammar in the United States lead us to the other kind.

Descriptive grammar is the study of how grammar is used. It looks at writing and utterances and attempts to tease out the myriad little rules that people are using. The stance is that, if the language is used in successful communication, if the utterance works and is understood, then the grammar must have been correct.

One type tries to maintain the existing rules, to make sure the rules are followed—as those rules are judged by those who feel passionately about them; the other type looks at how language is used to find out what the real rules are, even if what they find doesn’t conform to what is “proper.”