Communication

[ip568]

All:

I've been reading this forum for several months and the topic of how to get into officer training repeats again and again.

I'm an old timer so much of what I did and learned may not be relevant now. But I have to say that if there is one weakness I've noticed among you officer/flier wannabees (not to mention people already winged), it's a general inability to write with precision, clarity, and proper spelling. ESPECIALLY spelling. Posts on this site are filled with misspellings and mispunctuations. Nothing turns-off a selection board like misspellings and just generally lousy writing.

Don't get me wrong. These skills are not that common in the fleet, either. I was one of several people in my various squadrons upon whom fell the task of making officer fitreps and enlisted evals coherent. No CO wants to send to BUPERS a bunch of illiterate evaluations. So every cycle a buddy and I would find ourselves locked in a room with orders to stay there until the reports had been rendered at least coherent and properly punctuated.

My 2 cents: if you want a leg up in the application process, spend some time polishing your writing. During training, good writing makes a good impression. Once in your squadron, the same helps one's FITREP.

Launch 'em!

ip568

 

[Fly Navy]

It's an internet-wide problem. It is easy to be lazy on the internet, especially instant messenging.

 

[squorch2]

It's a quote from ATHF.

Yeah, I got that much - I was more referring to the "Im" and "your" of previous posts.

 

[Steve Wilkins]

IP,

Good points. You are certainly spot on in regard to the piss poor writing in the fleet. I know this isn't exactly what you said but you certainly alluded to it. It's true. On the average, officers and chiefs do not produce quality written work whether it be a message, fitreps/evals, instructions,....you name it. For me, I found this to be particularly troublesome on the carrier when my division was 120 guys. Do the math and you can see that's a lot of evals/fitreps that needed written. Did I write them all? Not exactly, but I sure had to edit all of them much more than I ever wanted to. You can only give them back to be rewritten so many times before time is up and they're due at the next level.

As for spelling, punctuation, etc. here on the forum or elsewhere on the internet, I don't have much of a problem with minor errors. Yea, seeing "your" in place of "you're" or "its" in place of "it's" or even "there" for "their" is somewhat annoying. Hopefully, people take a little more caution when writing stuff for selection boards or anything else for that matter for their commissioning packages. As long as I don't see IM chat type language here on the forum though, I'm fine.

 

[HOORAH]

As for spelling, punctuation, etc. here on the forum or elsewhere on the internet, I don't have much of a problem with minor errors. Yea, seeing "your" in place of "you're" or "its" in place of "it's" or even "there" for "their" is somewhat annoying. Hopefully, people take a little more caution when writing stuff for selection boards or anything else for that matter for their commissioning packages. As long as I don't see IM chat type language here on the forum though, I'm fine.

Funny this was brought up. It's not exactly an interent wide problem...it's a wide problem. I was in the store this past weekend and there was a sign (hand written) on the register. It read "We do not except personal checks" Um... whoops guess they meant accept.

People don't speak properly anymore. I'm an "english Nazi" I'll correct anyone i don't care of your age, race, or heritage. If you're going to speak it, do it properly. I even corrected my friend's little sister this weekend. She asked me if I was going to the house to get my bading suit. I asked her what bading was (She meant bathing). She's 9. Got to start them young, right?

 

[USN99]

What he said ...

You are certainly spot on in regard to the piss poor writing in the fleet.

I agree that the internet allows a lot of laxness in punctuation and grammar. That's fine. But when it comes to writing anything in the Fleet, especially fitreps and evals, we do a tremendous disservice to our JOs and sailors if we can't prepare well written fitreps and evals or any other written document.

I too had to grimace at the lack of quality writing I saw in drafts of fitreps and evals from my wardroom. I made it known that I wanted my JOs to either submit bullets (brag sheet) at fitrep time or a draft of their own fitrep. (Howls of disbelief.) Yes, drafting their own fitreps was an opportunity I made available to all of them. I used it as both a source of substance (what did they accomplish) and a gauge on how well they could express themselves on paper. For those that eschewed the opportunity, I drew the obvious conclusion. :icon_rage For those that submitted something poorly written, I also drew another obvious conclusion. I was also surprised at the ostensible disconnect by the JOs college (Boat Schoolers were no exceptions) and majors. Few could write satisfactorily. :icon_rage

I don't care how many 3 wires you catch, there will come a time when every JO has to face reality - they will likely be promoted, get additional responsibilities, and be compelled to write something. Save the Skipper a lot of time by drafting something that contains acceptable grammar, and correct punctuation. Some substance would also be appreciated.