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Subject:Re: What do you think? From:Sandra Charker <scharker -at- MASTERPACK -dot- COM -dot- AU> Date:Mon, 21 Jul 1997 19:03:41 +1000
Fascinating thread. Thanks Nancy.
It seems to me that a lot of the responses are to the book as a text for
students of tech. writing, but that's not what it is. It's a book for
teachers of tech writing; I boggle a bit at the thought of someone
publishing a book for such a tiny market, but if that's the intended
audience then it's unfair to judge the book as a student text or as a
statement of current practice.
Question 1. Depends how you define technical communication, but yes, I
think the majority probably still is paper based. However, I think the
author is over-generous to say that's a good reason for not using computers
in the classroom when they are ubiquitous in the production of technical
communication materials. I also think that instructors who argue that they
would have to teach computer literacy if they allowed computers into their
classrooms are either out of touch or (more probably I hope) working in
institutions that are desperately strapped for cash.
Question 2. I've followed Dale Spender's work for more 20 years and I'd
travel a long way to listen to her speak. She was one of the pioneers in
analysing differences in the way men and women use language, work that's
now part of popular sociology (e.g. "Men are from Mars, Women are from
Venus"), and which I would definitely expect to be part of a tech. writing
curriculum. A significant part of her current interest is in the influence
and effects of the Internet on society in general and education in
particular. In that context, she has published material demonstrating that
many women are alienated and intimidated by the culture and the technology
of computing and computer-mediated communication, and that one reason this
attitude has developed is that access to the Net depends on financial and
other resources which tend to be most available to "privileged white men".
I don't know whether 'forbidding' is her word or this author's, but I think
that it's an accurate word for the attitudes she has found in her research.
It's up to the author of this book to discuss whether those findings are
correct or relevant to the teaching of tech. writing - this excerpt is too
short to tell how well that's done.
Excerpt 3. This reads to me as if the author shares the apparently
universal view on the list that employers are not prepared to teach new
hires how to use a computer. I'm certainly not, although I except them (and
myself) to need learning time and training to cope with new tools and
technologies.
Nancy, you said you're reviewing the introductory chapter and you were only
1/16th through. Have your reactions changed as you read more?
Sandra Charker
scharker -at- masterpack -dot- com -dot- au
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