Comments on: #FridayFact: Good Writing Means More Money

By: Faizal Zulkifli

Faizal Zulkifli — Tue, 13 Feb 2018 21:11:13 +0000

This is actually an obvious statement as we know most of the professional field of work nowadays needs the writing skills to achieve a certain quality. It always relate to the fact that regardless what kind of career we pursue we cannot run from the the fact that writing is the greatest form for us in showcasing our work which is usually in form of reports. After doing any practical stuff in our field we would definitely need to present it in such a way to our supervisors so that is where this writing skill comes into the picture. So I would say that the topic above is not that surprising for me but it is still nice to know some of the statistics for it.

By: Jiayu Li

Jiayu Li — Mon, 12 Feb 2018 08:10:22 +0000

I like the last part of this infographic where the correlation between salary and mistakes is drawn within each field that the study was conducted and several careers were presented parallel to leave a stronger impression of conclusion. However, I think this infographic should remove the middle part where “writers make fewer mistakes”. Even though the data were very attractive, it shouldn’t be placed in this infographic. At first, it misled me to draw a conclusion that writers make more money than IT programmers.

By: Yibo Xu

Yibo Xu — Mon, 12 Feb 2018 00:24:35 +0000

It’s clearly to see that writing skills are very important because almost in all companies’ hire information have a common sentence which is “strong technical writing skills.” In my opinions, I think the mistakes in the paper is related to your thinking. Students who are in legal science or in law major, they are not allowed to have mistakes in their writings. Because they have to be precise about the using of words. If they made mistakes, the judgement may cause series differences. So basically i think the more preciseness of your writing is showing the more deliberately you are. No company wants to hire someone with a face of “careless.”
So by the explanations I gave above, it’s clear to see that why people who have good writing would have a higher salary. Writing is the showing of one’s ability.

By: Cassie Bienert

Cassie Bienert — Sun, 11 Feb 2018 16:53:01 +0000

In a class of mine, we recently talked about the correlation between education and income. Income is positively associated with education achievement. As a result, the less educated are more likely excluded from employment and a better quality of life. Thus, I think it makes sense for better writers to make more money as their writing skills are most likely a byproduct of their higher education.

Additionally, I know in the science profession good writing means more money. Research papers go through an intense peer review process. If you have poor writing skills, your papers will not be approved, you wont be published, you want receive grant money, and you’re less likely to move up in the industry.

By: Cassie Bienert

Cassie Bienert — Sun, 11 Feb 2018 16:49:04 +0000

I was thinking along the same lines! However, if the higher level professionals have more chances to write, than they also have more chances to make mistakes. In the end, I think it is all relative – if you make a lot of mistakes over a many writings or if you make little mistakes in few writings.

By: Omar Saadeh

Omar Saadeh — Sat, 10 Feb 2018 13:42:04 +0000

I’ve always believed that writing effectively could be either a transferable skill or a self-management skill, meaning that it could be carried on to your job or just be one of your many traits. That being said, I can understand why people who tend to make more errors while writing are paid relatively less because they just showcased the weakness in a very obvious way, which lead to these consequences. Freelancers should take advantage of the available resources online that help with their grammar, spelling and other mistakes more often to avoid getting paid less amounts that they potentially deserve. I can also relate this situation to my English 1105 class where our professor literally told us the better we become at writing, the better chance we’ll be getting As and Bs (being rewarded with letter grades instead of money). It really just depends on what you’re industry you’re working in which allows you to be a good writer because after looking at the statistics, being the creative one pays off more than being the technical one.

By: Josh Detwiler

Josh Detwiler — Sat, 10 Feb 2018 06:47:17 +0000

Some really insightful analysis. One thing that really interested me is the sheer percentage of mistakes that are made on average. Even writers make mistakes in their writing 10% of the time. However, I was definitely expecting programmers to make the most writing mistakes. I know all too well about the quality of writing from my peers and colleagues (*scoot scoot*). As someone who tenaciously studies languages, I aim to write better documentation and reports than my peers.

I think in your last question, the reason why people make significantly less for poorer writing in legal is because they often work with a contingency fee (typically 40%)–that is, they make money if you make money on the case. It makes sense–if they’re poor writers and speakers, they win less cases in court and therefore make less money.

By: Zachary Maners

Zachary Maners — Sat, 10 Feb 2018 04:48:25 +0000

This article pointed out interesting demographics, however I believe most of what the article states is variable among the different groups. For example, being a engineering student writing is not the most looked at fundamental since everything is visual to a certain extent. Depending on what you do for a company as an engineer I doubt there’s a significant salary increase due to the fact that you write better than another employee. In terms of the bigger picture it offers simplicity to those you work with, as opposed to personal reward. In other cases such as a career in journalism, multimedia design, or even a freelance writer, the significance of having less mistakes is heavily emphasized since that’s their day to day job. They get paid to write for a living and if they make too many mistakes then a company may not wish to pay them a substantial amount of money. In summary I believe that while better writing may not be the cause of a salary increase in certain job fields, I think it offers simplicity in communicating your ideas to others.

By: Alexander Ford

Alexander Ford — Sat, 10 Feb 2018 03:52:02 +0000

I feel like this article and the infographic that goes with it is just an embodiment of common sense. Most of the information present only confirms what we have been taught all our lives- that writing and getting an education is important to your career and, therefore, your life. Additionally, I feel like I didn’t really gain any helpful knowledge from this article. First of all, it’s obvious that writers and translators would have the least amount of errors. As Katie Cox said, “Their entire job is writing, so no one will hire a freelancer that makes lots of mistakes.” I entirely agree with this statement, and, in my opinion, 10.1 errors per 100 words is too high for someone who writes for a living. Moreover, The result of the research that points to those who make fewer mistakes get paid more also coincides with common sense. It is only logical that those with a higher education will make less writing errors. To further reinforce my point, those with the higher education typically are employed in higher paying jobs. A clear example of this is the role of administrator or manager. While it is possible to be promoted into an administrative role from a lower position, it is not uncommon for such positions to be filled by more qualified people who usually have a higher education (in the form of a degree or something similar). Even if this were not the case, by the time a person is promoted into such an administrative role, they should have gleaned the necessary knowledge to succeed in their new position. This usually includes furthering their education (this can occur in multiple different ways, of course) and thus still holds true to the logic I discussed beforehand. Finally, I think it is important to take note of where this article came from – Grammarly. This article comes from a clearly biased source. Grammarly has plenty to gain from people reading their article. By instilling this idea of “better writing equals higher pay” into its readers, Grammarly can make their following advertisements really pop. The following quote was taken from the advertisement I found at the bottom of the article:

“Grammarly is a must-have
writing app that makes sure everything you type
is clear, effective, and mistake-free.”

Seems awfully convenient doesn’t it? Almost as if it goes hand in hand with the article right above it. While I do applaud Grammarly for a clever marketing plan, it is important to take everything you read with a grain of salt. Although everything present in the article lines up with one’s own sense of common sense, I believe it is important to look deeper into the matter and draw one’s own conclusions.

By: Casey

Casey — Sat, 10 Feb 2018 03:20:22 +0000

Having worked a long time in the software industry, I can’t confirm that good writers make more money, but I can say for sure that good writers are enormously more pleasant to work with. Far and away, the primary job of a software engineer is managing complexity. It’s artistic. It requires that you communicate precisely, concisely, and completely. And it’s not possible for one person to solo most of the software that’s being produced today. A superstar developer who can produce incredible solutions to hard problems isn’t very useful if they’re the only person who is able to understand and maintain those solutions.

However, I’m certain that the methodology behind this research involved only mechanical errors that are detectable by a machine. Such errors don’t by any means imply that the communication is ineffective. On the contrary, bending and breaking grammar rules can sometimes result in much more concise communication that’s still good enough at completely and precisely conveying what it needs to. A developer who perfectly follows prescriptivist grammar rules when writing the internal documentation of a class is going to end up causing everyone who reads that documentation for the rest of history to waste several extra minutes reading through unnecessary mechanical stuff.

My point is that even when we talk about “errors” we must consider the purpose and audience of the writing, and take a more descriptivist and flexible stance towards grammar if appropriate for the situation.