What you say versus how you say it: Is 'proper' use of language overrated?

Q: New technologies like texting, instant messaging and spell checking allow business to move faster without people having to bother with formal letters, reports and presentations. Not everyone speaks and writes well, but they can be successful anyway if their ideas are good and they work hard. Do you need to worry much about grammar and proper use of language to succeed today?

Nick's reply: In the world of business, there's dirty work, dirty deals and even dirty clothing (urgh, you smell -- no job offer!). But perhaps the most pervasive "dirty" is dirty talk and dirty language. No, I don't mean bad words. I mean good words that are dragged around until they are unrecognizable. I'm referring to foul usage. Incorrect grammar. Poor spelling. Wrong pronouns when nouns just want to be right.

The business world is built on communication, but the increasing speed of communication technologies does not trump the importance of accuracy. Misuse of language makes a job hunter appear inaccurate, inept and less than stellar. (Who wants to hire anyone less than stellar?) There's a lot of incoherent communication in business, and it is never more evident than during an economic downturn, when employers are willing to pay for only the best talent. Lousy writers and sloppy speakers may permeate the business world, but they do not dominate it.

And heaven help you if your boss plods through the English language with less skill than his staff. The worst is the manager who swears, "It's the quality of your ideas that counts, not the way you say it!" And maybe the worst manager is the principal at my kids' school who told me: "We don't bother with spelling here. Nobody can spell. That's what we have spell checkers for." Schools produce weak communicators who increase the cost of doing business in a time when profit is king.

Every time I've had to rewrite a co-worker's report, or clean up the run-on sentences in a business proposal my boss wrote or apologize to a client when my employee misused some pronouns ("Her and me went to the meeting last week"), I feel like I have to wash my hands because I just cleaned up someone's mess. But mostly, I worry about what it's costing me.

Not sure how important effective use of language is? Get over it. Learn how to use language properly and then practice it. Show you can string together a few words into a sentence. Move on to complete paragraphs that start with a main idea. Put a few paragraphs together to make an argument, a case, a point, a sign of intelligence. Discover sub-headings that organize and showcase big ideas and create titles that make people want to do what you want them to do. Because that's what business is about.

The philosopher Wittgenstein said, "The limits of my language mean the limits of my world." (You can look it up: That idea is called linguistic determinism.) Learn to speak with authority and pride because your words determine reality -- and your success.

Expand your world now. Get an idea of why language matters every day and get a taste for using it effectively. Take a writing course. Read a book about how to speak properly. Gretchen Hirsch's "Talking Your Way to the Top" is easy to take and it will make you laugh enough to take more.

Then get smarter. Get a good dictionary. Buy a guide to grammar, like the Harbrace College Handbook. Buy a book about how to use English accurately, like Bryan Garner's Dictionary of Modern American Usage. Don't just keep these on the shelf. Rifle through them every day. Use the word tools that let you create the reality you want.

Illiteracy reveals ignorance, and ignorance suggests incompetence. Even when you think no one notices, they do. People won't correct you, but they won't forget that you are uneducated. Stop being defensive and cut out the excuses and rationalizations. Learn how to use words to get what you want in life, in business and in your career.

And if you catch me botching a phrase, misspelling a word or goofing on an adverb, smack me. It helps me write better next time. It helps me avoid appearing illiterate, and it helps me be more successful.

Copyright 2009. Distributed by Universal Press Syndicate

Nick Corcodilos is author of "Ask The Headhunter: Reinventing the Interview to Win the Job" and the host of www.asktheheadhunter.com. He can be reached by e-mail at seattle@asktheheadhunter.com or at North Bridge Group, P.O. Box 600, Lebanon, NJ 08833. Sorry, no personal replies.