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For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Some people process information visually, and are much more inclined to
accept the importance of words onscreen or on paper. Others process
auditorially, and attach more importance to the sound. While someone with
poor or weak writing skills may be brought up to some modest standard of
competence, it is extremely difficult to teach strong writing skills to
someone lacking the basic mindset that writing is important. To many,
including an overwhelming majority of journalism, English, and "technical
writing" majors, writing is a trivial pursuit. Only competence at getting
the grade is relevant.
Finally, the level of writing skill evidenced by students in universities
often leaves a LOT to be desired. I took an upper division English class a
couple of years ago in which the entire semester project was writing a
"critique" of the Challenger disaster and related communication failures.
The group I worked with was composed of five students, and of the five, four
were English majors. (I was the odd one out.) The final product was based on
a re-hash of the 10 page handout provided at the start of the semester--no
outside research, no brilliant analysis, not even support for the opinions
stated, beyond the 10 page handout. The group earned an "A" for the project,
and for the semester, based on that paper, and showing up for most of the
classes. The paper was so poorly written I included an explanation and
apology to the instructor, indicating I thought it was more important to
allow the group to produce the document as a group than to include the 300+
pages of outside commentary and 30+ pages of critique I submitted to them
before the final edit.
I have very little respect for English instruction as a basis for writing
skill, beyond the most simplistic.
Thanks
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