There is a good article in our paper today, by a college prof. in Toronto. Here is the crux:
Gaidosch said students' inability to express themselves clearly in writing is a three-pronged problem.

As a teacher with 28 years of classroom experience, Gaidosch has watched his students' writing proficiency steadily decline.

As a business consultant, he has heard employers' complaints steadily increase. They say too many young job applicants, even those with college degrees, lack the basic verbal skills necessary to thrive in a corporate environment.

As a concerned educator who has spent a lot of time trying to figure out what went wrong, he believes that our school systems, Canada's and the United States' alike, are primarily to blame for overemphasizing multiple-choice tests and other ways of measuring mere information regurgitation.
http://www.courier-journal.com/features/2004/02/24/writing1.html