Grammar Skills Lead to Success, So How To Help Your Child

Good grammar relates directly to success. Who knew?

Most Important To Your Child’s Future Success

Grammarly recently completed a study of the LinkedIn LNKD +0% profiles of 100 native English-speakers in the consumer packaged goods industry to see what they could learn.1 

“Fever grammar errors correlate with more promotions. Professionals with 6-9 promotions made 45% fever grammatical errors that those who’d been promoted 1-4 times.”

Wendy Gunn

If good grammar is that important, shouldn’t we care more about it? Will bad grammar hinder your child’s future success and advancement?

Whether you’re a student, businessman, or Homeschool mom, good grammar is essential and Grammarly can help!

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Bad Grammar Keeps Applicants From Getting In The Door of A Job

Kyle Wiens, the CEO of iFixit, wrote earlier this year that he refuses to hire anyone with bad grammar.2

Wiens maintains that grammar skills typically indicate positive workplace traits (including attention to detail, critical thinking and intellectual aptitude).

Homeschool Mom: Teach This Subject

For your child’s future success, therefore, grammar must be a Homeschool subject. It is absolutely necessary to what you’re trying to accomplish, whether you’re a Homeschool mom trying to prepare your children to succeed in the world, or a businessman aiming for the next promotion, or a blogger, like myself, trying to communicate effectively! But, how do we achieve the goal of teaching and using good grammar?

Grammarly, the App

I’ve used an app  that I absolutely LOVE called Grammarly. You can choose which issues it helps you with: spelling, grammar, punctuation, sentence structure, style, vocabulary enhancement, and one you may not have thought of–plagiarism! (Commas are my big problem!!!)

What I Love about Grammarly

I like that it makes suggestions to word choice, placement of commas, spelling and that it knows all the grammar rules. You can install it on all your devices, including Microsoft Office and add an extension (I added the Chrome extension!). 

What I Don’t Like About Grammarly

At first, I found it difficult to use on my phone. Update: Then, I realized I really didn’t need it to edit my texts and most of what I do on my phone:) So, this became a mute point! Swiping was my default when texting or writing emails. I no longer can use the swipe feature on the new keyboard if I choose Grammarly. (Possibly I just haven’t figured it out yet. I will update, if I learn how to use the swipe feature later on!)

The more I use Grammarly, the more I love Grammarly. I write thousands of words a week. (Are your students struggling to write papers?) Since I don’t remember all the grammar rules, and tend to overuse commas, and then not put them in when they should be there, the suggestions are very helpful to me. What I love most of all with the Premium version, is that it improves my writing!!! 

Grammarly tells me when something is unclear. It offers suggestions when I’ve overused a word! It suggests synonyms I can choose from. Often I get in a rut, using the same adjectives and adverbs over and over. Awesome, amazing, good, etc. He said, she said. Grammarly improves my writing effortlessly. If nothing else, it has made me think about grammar, and make more of an effort to write well! It vastly improved my ebooks and it will do the same for any writing your students, or you, do. So, the bottom line is, I strongly recommend Grammarly to you.

Effective Communication

“Grammar lays the groundwork for effective communication.  Just as an improperly configured telephone wire can cause static during a phone conversation, improper grammar can likewise affect the meaning and clarity of an intended message,” reminds Jana Johnson. 4

Essential Skills For Leaders

As parents and Homeschoolers, we are training the next generation’s leaders. “Grammar skills are important to be an effective leader. Communication skills are indispensable to effectively give direction and provide assurance of leading ability.”5

In this day and age of texting, tweeting and writing incomplete sentences, excellent communication could easily become a lost art. However, it is still a sought-after skill by employers. We owe it to our children to prepare them to succeed and be the leaders God is calling them to be, no matter what they do, or where they go!

Is Your Child Falling Behind

“In 2012, The New York Times published a ‘Room for Debate’ in its opinion section called ‘Is Our Children Learning Enough Grammar to Get Hired?’ A comment from Lynne Truss, author of Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation, wrote that ‘when young people are taught to undervalue literacy as a life skill, they are being cruelly misled’ (Truss).” 6

Best Sellers in Grammar

My son loved the above-mentioned book, Eats, Shoots & Leaves. The title so aptly demonstrates the importance of the presence or absence of a simple element, a comma, in clear communication! The position of one little comma makes a drastic difference in the meaning of the title sentence! Eats, Shoots and Leaves vs. Eats Shoots and Leaves!

Does Grammar Matter to God?

Jesus was called “the Word.” {“And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.” John 1:14} God entrusted the gospel to be communicated and passed down through the written Word of God–the Bible. It is obvious that God’s holds words and communication, both verbal and written, in high regard. 

Communicating clearly and effectively is of utmost importance to our Heavenly Father, and should be to us, as well, because, as Christians, communicating the gospel clearly to a lost world is imperative. We can’t afford to be misunderstood because of bad grammar.

“If Jesus was called ‘the Word’, and God entrusted the gospel to be communicated and passed down through the written Word of God–the Bible–it is obvious that communicating clearly and effectively is of utmost importance to our Heavenly Father, and should be to us, as well.“

Wendy Gunn

Teaching is Falling Short in the Public Schools

 “‘An employee who can write properly is far more valuable and promotable than one whose ambiguous text is likely to create confusion, legal liability and embarrassment’ (Rushkoff). Yet, is it fair to discriminate against prospective employees if their educations failed them, as opposed to their own willingness to learn?”

This statement, among many similar, stated the opinion of employers that teaching of grammar in the public schools was ineffective. They were seeing applicants for jobs with deplorable grammar, and it was a serious issue to them! Parents of public school students must sit up and take notice, and this is an area where Homeschool students can show up with surpassing excellence and succeed!

“Large American businesses spend about $3.1 billion annually on writing remediation instruction. Being able to write professionally and expressively proves to be a desired talent in potential employees.”

Homeschool Parents Can Grab This Opportunity

As a Homeschool parent, here is where you can make your child stand out, and Homeschoolers will be the leaders in the generation to come, because they will stand out head and shoulders above their peers as a job applicant, because you have taught them well! Begin to prepare them early in their life to succeed!

The Applicant With Good Grammar Gets the Job

Your child not only will be hired and succeed in the workplace, or as a business owner–in whatever he does–he will save his employer money and have an excellent testimony! (“A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches.” Proverbs 22:1) If all Homeschoolers teach effectively, think of the millions that could be saved–money and people! Your child will be the one promoted, he will be the one others look up to, he will be the one who makes a difference in this world.

Grammar Skills Lacking in The Teacher

But, you don’t know how to teach grammar! What do you do if your own skills are lacking, as a teacher, as a result of poor educational training from your own past? And, how will your son or daughter know if they are employing correct usage in their written assignments? I believe Grammarly excels and is an essential tool for everyone! Grammarly to the rescue!

Seven Reasons You Will Love Grammarly

• Most parents and Homeschoolers don’t remember what we were taught about grammar and can’t answer our children’s questions. Grammarly knows the answers and gives suggestions as the students are writing!
• Grammarly can be uploaded to all your devices (laptop, phone, internet, Office documents), making you look good, and helping all your writing, no matter where you are, in the office, at school, or at home.
• Grammarly makes suggestions and explains why, so it teaches, rather than just corrects.
• Your child will write and communicate all his life. If he is to be a good leader, he will be expected to communicate well. Practice is essential. Reminded repeatedly, and making appropriate corrections with grammar rules applied to his writing over and over, gives him the practice he needs.
• Grammarly will give your students the confidence they need to communicate their ideas and rise to the top as leaders.
• Grammarly lets you choose the areas you need the most help in.
• As Christians, communicating the gospel clearly to a lost world is imperative. We can’t afford to be misunderstood because of bad grammar.

“Whether it’s January, April, July or October, it doesn’t matter the time of the year, if God whispers, “I want change” in your ear, make this Day One of your new year!”

Wendy Gunn

Whether you’re a businessman, boss lady, entrepreneur, homemaker, homeschooler or student–whatever you do–you communicate, and you need to do it clearly and well. Good grammar is more important than you know. It is essential to your children’s and students’ future success. Therefore, I recommend Grammarly to you, as an essential tool to help you succeed.