Why Grammar is Important for Effective Communication in Business

The Two Ideologies of Grammar

Grammar can be described as a pattern of words and how words are put together to develop phrases or clauses while speaking or writing. So, if the question is asked whether grammar matters or not, it means whether it is important for everybody to use the same patterns and rules. There are two parts or ideologies of grammar- prescriptivism, and descriptivism (ed.ted.com, 2022). Prescriptivist believes that there should be a set of rules in grammar whereas descriptivist believes that there should be variations and adaptations in grammar.

The language was primarily spoken for a large part of history. Various folklores, stories in the past were spread by mouths from generation to generation. But as the world became more globalized and interconnected, it became important to share the information in a written format so that the things are easily understood and conveyed, here when the grammar was focused more. Speaking and writing involve the usage of grammar differently (ed.ted.com, 2022), which means while writing more importance of grammar is given, to make the meaning of a sentence clear. This is how the proper notion of language came into existence, and the importance also increased with time. The language purist has their own rules and standards that they follow while using grammar.  A lot of debate has been going around between the descriptivist and prescriptivist, whether grammar sets have a specific pattern or not. In the modern-day, the writers are bending towards the rules of grammar for a better effect and understanding.

The writers feel the usage of proper grammar makes the meaning of a sentence clear. Many believe that rules in grammar are important in business meetings as it helps to convey and understand information and avoid misunderstanding (RAO). It also helps people from another cultural background to understand what is being said. The notion about grammar varies from person to person. But it is believed usage of proper grammar for people who belong to another cultural background. Some people belong to different regions of the world and have different backgrounds, it is very important to understand each other, and it is believed that grammar can fill the gap.

The other usefulness of grammar is that it also helps in the level of accuracy in expression. There are many times when a particular verb tense is more appropriate to use than the others. Grammar mostly helps a person to explain to others exactly what they mean (Minasyan, and Midova, 2016). This is one of the other reasons why grammar matters. Grammar is the foundation of communication. Proper construction of sentences is important and that could only be possible if the grammar is correct. For sentence formation, grammar plays an important part. It also helps us to understand pronouns, nouns, adverbs, verbs, tenses, and many more.

The reason why grammar is important for business is multifarious for instance- many organizations depend on guidelines that are specifically written especially while communicating with the team members. Correct grammar will help the employees understand the instructions properly, it avoids misunderstanding and confusion. This also helps in maintaining a positive work environment as all the employees understand things properly, the relationship between the upper management and the employees is also good, because of clear communication. The clients and the suppliers are also interested in organizations that communicate things properly, and that could only be possible with the help of proper usage of grammar.

Proper usage of grammar also helps in maintaining and improving business credibility (Guffey, and Loewy, 2015) and also helps in maintaining reputation, trust, and making the interaction more fruitful. Grammatically wrong documents convey wrong information. It misguides people, increases conflicts, and also makes the people take wrong actions. This makes other people take legal actions against the organizations for misleading. This is another reason why grammar is important for clear communication; it helps the company avoid unnecessary legal actions.

Various researches have shown that many customers would falter in purchasing from the website of the company if there is a spelling mistake or any other grammatical errors. There are certain things that companies use to impress customers, as the competition is high. Any company does not want to present their products unfavorably in front of the customers, because otherwise, the customers might lose interest, because of the usage of poor grammar (Guffey, and Seefer, 2019). Any company wants to maintain and gain more customers and hence usage of proper grammar on the written instruction is important to communicate informed actions. These are some of the reasons businesses use proper grammar.

Reference

ed.ted.com. (2022). Does grammar matter? - Andreea S. Calude. TED-Ed. Retrieved 10 February 2022, from https://ed.ted.com/lessons/does-grammar-matter-andreea-s-calude.

Guffey, M. E., & Loewy, D. (2015). Essentials of business communication. Cengage Learning.

Guffey, M. E., & Seefer, C. M. (2019). Business English. Cengage Learning.

Minasyan, E. T., & Midova, V. O. (2016). Grammar as one of key competences of language acquisition. Russian linguistic bulletin, (3 (7)).

RAO, V. V. ENGLISH GRAMMAR-AN EFFECTIVE TOOL.