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Subject:TWs as Textbook writers? From:Mdjwrites -at- aol -dot- com To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Fri, 18 Jan 2002 05:18:18 EST
kwalker2 -at- gte -dot- net (kelley)writes:
>Academics are notoriously snobby gatekeepers. As >teachers, we put down tech writers who seem to write >awful textbooks that seem to be responsible for
>our students inability to read and comprehend.
Admittedly, there is tech writing in some textbooks(science, math, English composition, dance, acting, home ec., phys. ed., and health.
However, in the field I am most familiar with, English comp. & rhetoric, most of the writers are academics who are doing tech writing, not tws, per se.
High School history texts are often maligned(rightfully so, imo)for trying to, among other things, put too much information inside courses that are too short. While condensing information is a valuable tech writing tool, I would doubt that history texts are being written by tws. My guess is that, with hs history texts, some type of academic is doing, consciously or (more likely) unconsciously, some pale imitation of tech writing.
Michael Jeter
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