单项选择题

Managers are fighting an epidemic of grammar gaffes (错误) in the workplace. Many of them attribute slipping skills to the informality of email, texting and Twitter where slang and shortcuts are common. Such looseness with language can create bad impressions with clients, ruin marketing materials and cause communications errors, many managers say.
There’s no easy fix. Some bosses and co-workers step in to correct mistakes, while others consult business-grammar guides for help. In a survey conducted earlier this year, about 45% of 430 employers said they were increasing employee-training programs to improve employees’ grammar and other skills, according to the Society for Human Resource Management and AARP. "I’m shocked at the rampant illiteracy on Twitter, " says Bryan A. Garner, author of Garner’s Modern American Usage and president of LawProse, a Dallas training and consulting firm. He has compiled a list of 30 examples of "uneducated English", such as saying "I could care less", instead of "I couldn’t care less, " or, "He expected Helen and I to help him, " instead of "Helen and me. "
Most participants in the Society for Human Resource Management-AARP survey blame younger workers for the skills gap. Tamara Erickson, an author and consultant on generational issues, says the problem isn’t a lack of skill among 20- and 30-somethings. Accustomed to texting and social networking, "they’ve developed a new norm, " Ms. Erickson says. Also, some grammar rules aren’t clear, leaving plenty of room for disagreement. Tom Kamenick battled fellow attorneys at a Milwaukee, Wis. , public-interest law firm over use of "the Oxford comma"-an additional comma placed before the "and" or "or" in a series of nouns. Leaving it out can change the meaning of a sentence, Mr. Kamenick says. The sentence, "The greatest influences in my life are my sisters, Oprah Winfrey and Madonna, " means something different than the sentence, "The greatest influences in my life are my sisters, Oprah Winfrey, and Madonna," he says. (The first sentence implies the writer has two celebrity sisters; the second says the sisters and the stars are different individuals. ) After Mr. Kamenick asserted in digital edits of briefs and papers that "I was willing to go to war on that one, " he says, colleagues backed down, either because they were convinced, or "for the sake of their own sanity and workplace decorum".
Mr. Garner, the usage expert, requires all job applicants at his nine-employee firm-including people who just want to pack boxes—to pass spelling and grammar tests before he will hire them. And he requires employees to have at least two other people copy-edit and make corrections to every important email and letter that goes out. "Twenty-five years ago it was impossible to put your hands on something that hadn’t been professionally copy-edited, " Mr. Garner says. "Today, it is actually hard to put your hands on something that has been professionally copy-edited. \

According to Tamara Erickson, （） may result in the deteriorating language skills.

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