Can you help my sister-in-law?

[Pamela H in Texas]

Okay, so my sister-in-law calls me yesterday.  Her boss said that he needs her to learn to write.  She doesn't think she can do a remedial college course and isn't sure that is low enough anyway.  As I talked to her, I didn't hear absolutely horrendous grammar or phrasing. I'm not sure why it seems so much worse on paper.  So the main issues seem to be grammar and punctuation.  The example she gave was that she has a lot of misplaced periods and commas, possibly using them interchangeably.  

 

She needs to be able to write up evaluations for the employees she supervises.  They work in a plant. They aren't asking for a college degree; but just decent writing.  Considering her brother, my hubby, scored into the lowest remedial class for writing, has a supervisory position also, and has never had this come up; I'm assuming her writing really is THAT bad.  

 

It seems like this would be a fairly common issue, either one people need to fix to keep a job or to get a job.  Most resources I'm seeing are for students or writers though.

 

Any ideas?

 

[Melinda in VT]

Would an individual tutor be a possibility?

 

It seems like the first thing to do would be to evaluate some current writing samples, make a list of mistakes, and prioritize them. I'd probably start with "what's a sentence" based on what you shared.

 

Then, the tutor could work with her on the worst problem, and when she's fixed that one, go on to the next.

 

This would require the tutor to have access to new writing samples each week. She might need to get her boss's permission to show the samples to the tutor (with all identifying information blacked out).

[Starr]

She could go through SWB's writing program. It sounds like she needs to go back to the beginning and hopefully she can work through it quickly. Is she near you? She needs to organize her thoughts and understand punctuation. In the meantime tell her to stop using commas and to read her work out loud to see how it sounds. Good luck to her. 

[*Lulu*]

The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation by Jane Strauss is very good.

 

It very clearly spells out the rules, is organized by skill groups, and includes quizzes.

[KungFuPanda]

Bravewriter course?

[Harriet Vane]

Can you post a writing sample? I have tutored students of varying abilities for years, including some with significant special needs. If I see a sample I can probably offer some concrete advice.

 

Based on just what you have written here, though, I would say that BraveWriter or SWB's course would NOT be the best fit. (I really like SWB's writing course but don't think it will give your sister the drill she would need for punctuation, etc.) I am going to guess that she needs two things:

 

--A better foundation in rules of grammar and punctuation, and a way to trigger her mind to recognize what is needed in a given situation. For this, she needs grammar drills--first, sentences that target specific skills, and second, something that will teach her to proofread/edit varied sentences in a paragraph.

 

--A way to write the way that she speaks. Lots of people struggle with this. One thing to try is to say out loud what she wants to write. If she is typing, she may be able to say it and type it at the same time. If she is hand writing, then doing both simultaneously will be too slow. For handwriting, she can try saying it out loud first, then trying to write exactly what she said.

 

If she is struggling with run-on sentences, there are a few tricks she can try. One is to force herself to write every new thought on a new line. It forces the mind to take a bigger "break" between thoughts, and becomes easier to recognize where periods go. Another thing to try is to go back over what she has written, looking for the word "and." Where she sees that word, she should consider if the "and" can be replaced with a period to make the one long sentence into two.

[Carol in Cal.]

She should study "The Elements of Style" and could use the Editor in Chief program (online or in workbooks) to practice.  The other thing is, does she reread meticulously?  Or even, at all?  My DH had that problem.  He would write something down and think he was done.  I taught him to write decently mostly just by insisting that he reread every single time he wrote something, and if he changed something he wrote because of his reread, reread again to make sure that the whole thing was right.  Honestly, that might be most of the problem right here.

[MomatHWTK]

https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/

 

She might want to put these courses on her watchlist:

https://www.coursera.org/course/basicwriting

https://www.coursera.org/course/gtcomp

https://www.coursera.org/course/composition

[Word Nerd]

Grammar Girl offers good tips on grammar, punctuation, and language usage. I love The Oatmeal's punctuation posters: http://theoatmeal.com/comics/semicolon

 

I agree that a tutor who will focus on exactly the skills she's lacking would be the best solution.

[Trish]

Barron's has a smallish book entitled Painless Grammar, it goes over the basic rules, gives examples, quizzes at the end of each section. I used it for review for one of my middle schoolers and it was...painless. It's also very practical, nothing in there you wouldn't actually USE. It's on Amazon and maybe your local bookstore.

 

Can someone from home edit her employee reviews before she turns them in? And by that I mean not only fix the mistakes, but go over with her WHY they are mistakes so she starts improving.

 

Good luck!

[Melissa in Australia]

she could also look at getting a more advanced spell and grammar check for her computer. there are some out there that look at sentence contents and structure that are recommended for people with  things like Dyslexia.

[poppy]

Look for a course called "Business Writing" or "Writing for Business".  Those are generally aimed at remedial and ESL writers and give basic grammar and editing tips, all in the more formal style (as opposed to the journalistic or scholarly styles).

[zoobie]

Dragon Naturally Speaking is a computer dictation program that inserts basic commas and periods. I have not experimented with it yet. A grammar/spell check would point out egregious errors.

[LizzyBee]

How about some grammar and editing workbooks from Amazon?  Amazon sells a lot of workbooks published by the major textbook suppliers.  She could start with maybe a 5th grade workbook and work up from there. A workbook would be less abstract (and written at a lower level) than a grammar handbook or style book.  I suggested 5th grade because the college remedial courses start at a pretty low level, so if that's too hard, it seems like 5th might be a good place to start.  Lots of books on amazon have samples, and that would help with choosing the appropriate level.

[LucyStoner]

What about an adult basic education course? Most are work compatible and low cost or even free. Look at the local community college.