Kyle Wiens, CEO of iFixit.com, claims in his blog post that he does not hire people with bad grammar or lack of “proper language.” He explains that he has found that people who care less about the written language also care less about the job they are completing or writing for. When I read this part of the article, I literally went, “…proof?” Wiens is a CEO for an online repair company, not an English professor or researcher. By prohibiting the use of one’s own language, he is willingly refusing to hire people who may be qualified for the job and may be as passionate as, if not more than, the current employees of the company. Depriving people of a job because of grammar is completely unfair. You mean to tell me you give grammar tests to people who want to work for you, and god forbid they make a grand total of one small grammar error, you immediately turn them down?! This may be a new form of discrimination that I have never heard of. Wiens should be lucky he does not agree with Lynne Truss’ more extreme views on this circumstance. It still does not excuse him for his method of hiring employees. If he cares so much about grammar, why does he not provide scientific research to back up his claim?
Zachary Martin writes about the use of African-American Vernacular English (AAVE). Most of his article is in fact written the way he personally speaks, and I believe Kyle Wiens should take a look at it. Ignoring the grammar and spelling mistakes, Wiens would find a very well-structured argument with a passionate voice and an educated mind behind the work. Martin gets his ideas across very well, even bringing up the fact that writing in Standard English deprives the writer of their own voice and flavor to their work. He explains the stereotype about how using AAVE shows a lack of intelligence, when in actuality, it is its own form of English with its own set of rules. Martin makes a solid argument that AAVE is a valid form of spoken English, and that writers using their own voice does not make them less intelligent. This article reminded me of Vershawn Ashanti Young’s “Should Writers Use They Own English?” and how he rejects Stanley Fish’s similar views to Wiens about language and grammar, while writing the entire essay in AAVE. Both Young and Martin make wonderful points and explain certain aspects of English thoroughly while using their own voices, making the essays more personal and rooted in their own style of writing. So my advice to Kyle Wiens, read both Martin and Young’s works, and see for yourself how grammar should not be a deciding factor in hiring someone for a repair company.
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