Brad Marley

Writing a guest blog, as I have come to find out, is a lot like writing a term paper.

• There's a specific topic.

• There's a due date that can be extended with some negotiation.

• The first time you do it is a daunting experience.

• You expect to only get better.

Kirsten Wright of Wright Creativity approached me a few weeks ago and asked if I could contribute a post to her blog on the topic of creativity.  I was happy to oblige.  How hard could it be?

As the days turned into weeks, and I begged and pleaded for an extension, I found out exactly how hard it could be.

This is the worst blog post I've ever written.

She has actual followers, which means people are going to read it.

Is it to late to delete my blog and erase any digital sign of myself? 

But I pressed on.  And maybe in what is a true sign of creativity, the blog post practically wrote itself.

It started out as a treatise on why public relations and creativity don't mix, and turned into a slightly different take on creativity.

Anyway, here it is.

Clearly some people, live novelists, need no motivation to write, as evidenced by the thousands upon thousands of books you find at your local library.

For others, like reporters, it's a corrupt government scandal they uncovered that must see the light of day.

And maybe for specialty bloggers, it's the desire to share with their readers the proper way to make a roux, or how to lay a brick paver walkway.

While each type of writer might seem dissimilar at first glance, they are all motivated to sit down and put words to paper.

It's a trait inherent in a lot of us, and no matter how hard we try to fight, it always seems to get the better of us.

What motives you to write?

Poor grammar and lazy writing is the bane of anybody who relies on words and sentences to make a living.

It's the colleague who sent you his best "retards" in an e-mail, or why the award entry you just proofread is giving away a plague to the winner.

These linguistic fouls, while worth a chuckle, underscore an epidemic that is ravaging our country, but you won't hear Oprah or Anderson Cooper talk about it.

Everyone, from CEOs to college kids, is affected.

See, in the past month, I've won a golf apparel shopping spree from a local golf store and a free round of golf from a local golf course.

But both e-mails sent to me contained glaring, cringe-inducing errors.

The first e-mail, sent from the vice president of the company, indicated I won a golf "apperal" gift certificate.  The second, sent from the manager of the golf course, included the subject line, "Your a winner!!!"

Maybe, instead of trying to sound overly excited, they should have asked somebody to review before they hit "send."

The appearance of these error-ridden messages in my inbox, from managers and upper-level management no less, further cement my belief that a dearth of well-trained communicators is one of our most pressing needs as a society.

If only we could get Glenn Beck to discuss it.

When 20,000 people come together as one sweaty, screaming entity, it's a beautiful thing.

When the noise emitted from the collective jowl of this beast reaches a crescendo so loud you can't hear yourself think, well, that's just gorgeous.

And when the final horn sounds, and the entity erupts in a sound reminiscent of a planned demolition, well, I'm not sure there are words to describe it.

Slapping high-fives with strangers, chanting into the wee hours of the night …well, maybe that's all we need. 

For a handful of hours, you sit next to people who you've never met, but you leave feeling like you've been through something nobody on the outside can relate to.

It's why we spend hard earned money to watch grown men play a game; it's why we don't even try to explain to people who don't get it why we go.

It's the shared experience.  

That's what it's all about.

And it certainly helps when the home team wins. 

Four days.

Four posts.

If I'm not careful, I'm going to set a dangerous and impossible-to-maintain precedent for myself. But I want to strike while the iron's hot, so enjoy this while you can.

A couple of months ago I was asked by the communication studies department at my alma mater to serve on an alumni board that would review student portfolios prior to their graduation in 2009. 

After reviewing about a dozen portfolios last night, I'm ashamed to say I'm disheartened by what I read.

It's one thing to struggle with the essence of a press release.  Even the most seasoned communications professional gets stuck trying to come up with the perfect lead. 

However, judging from what I reviewed, that doesn't begin to approach the root of the problem.

These kids don't have a basic understanding of grammer and puncuation.

It's difficult to provide honest feedback on other aspects of their work when I can't get past the missing periods and misspelled words that would be remedied by a simple spell check.  Based on their body of work, no employer would hire any of the students we reviewed last night.

Unfortunately, when they receive feedback, it's going to hit them like a ton of bricks because they've been led to believe that their work is acceptable.

Some of the papers in the portfolios I reviewed received very high scores from their professors, yet, these were the very same pieces of work I wanted to deface with a red marker.

What gives? 

It's hard to blame the students when faculty lets them off the hook.

Are the students really that bad? Or are their professors not doing their jobs?

One caveat I should add is that my school isn't known for their liberal arts program, and perhaps therein lies the rub.

If there are any readers who have intimate knowledge of the state of similar programs at other schools, I'd love to hear feedback.