linguistic analysis - Professor Binkert's Webpage - Oakland University

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It is important to note that sources like the above do not stress the need for workers to have extensive
knowledge of particular facts in order to be employable. Actually, nowadays it is rather easy to get
information about almost anything very quicky using the internet. What workers do need instead
is the ability to organize, analyze and integrate the information they find so that they can make viable
proposals to solve problems.
The Information Explosion
In addition to finding a program of study that emphasizes critical thinking and problem solving
skills, students should also consider whether the program will prepare them to deal effectively with
the nature of the modern workplace and the specific problems they will be asked to solve on the job.
First, in today’s workplace, the amount of information that the average corporate worker must digest
is enormous. Consider, for example, just the issue of emails which must be looked at, evaluated, and
often answered before work on a problem can even begin. By 2014, it is projected that the average
number of legitimate corporate emails a worker can expect to receive per day will be 65; the average
number sent will be 39 (Email Statistics Report, 2010, Sara Radicati, The Radicati Group, Inc.,
April, 2010). Adding instant messaging and social networking, it becomes clear that workers must
handle a massive amount of data.
Again, different sources provide different statistics; yet, an undeniable fact is that the internet has
fostered an explosion in the amount of information that is available virtually instantaneously. “Each
year the world produces 800 MB of data per person. It would take approximately 30 feet of shelf
space to hold that amount of information in books. The amount of data produced each year would
fill 37,000 libraries the size of the Library of Congress” (How Much Information Is There? Mark
Shead, 2007; www.productivity501.com). Recent lapses from agencies like Homeland Security, the
CIA, and the FBI have shown alarmingly how easy it is for important communiques to get lost in the
avalanche of data even though such agencies employ experts in surveillance. While national security
is rarely at stake in office emails, the point is clear: to be successful, modern workers need to be able
to digest, sort, organize, and prioritize massive amounts of information efficiently and expertly.
The Problems Facing Today’s Workers
Another factor that students should consider in selecting a program of study involves the nature of
the problems that workers face on a routine basis in the 21st century. Today’s problems are
invariably complex, multifaceted, and subtle. It used to be the case that one could formulate a
problem into a relatively well-defined and stable statement, that one would know when a satisfactory
solution was reached, and that one could clearly evaluate the solution objectively as being good or
bad and right or wrong. That is no longer the case for many problems facing society, government,
and businesses such as the following: