RE: I should be doing THIS kind of tech writing

[eric -dot- dunn -at- ca -dot- transport -dot- bombardier -dot- com]

John Posada Wrote:
<<Sometimes, the author is writing the book solely for the purpose of
fulfilling a requirement to keep tenure at their teaching position.>>

While this is getting terribly OT, I have to agree completely with you. Egotism
related to having a published work is also part of it.

When in University, a professor had a text book published (Modeling and Analysis
of Linear Systems, if I remember correctly). The problem was that it was the
required book for the course and cost something like 90 dollars. To add insult
to injury, besides being bound in a glossy hard cover the pages themselves were
of about the same quality as you'd get if you printed from a poor laser printer
(this was in '92 or '93 and the engineering computer lab had a better quality
output).

Well, due to the ridiculous cost and short lifecycle of text books, there was a
thriving business at the local copy shop in selling copies of all required text
books. The business was so successful that you could go to them immediately
after registration and pick up all the books for all your courses. The
university bookstore rarely had any of the correct text books until the second
week of classes and some times longer. If the text books had changed, the copy
shop would exchange the erroneous copy free of charge.

Needless to say, the book store sold virtually no copies of the real book. The
professor was surely suspicious before hand, but one day in class he finally
paid a little attention to the students and what was on the desks and threw a
hissy fit when he saw EVERYONE with plastic-comb bound copies of his book. He
reported the copy shop and it was busted by the RCMP. I think that was one of
the two or three times the copy shop was busted while I was at university. That
time they were shut down, but they reopened across the street.

I know the practice was/is illegal. But can you blame a student on a budget who
has the choice between unweildly hardbound materials that weigh a ton and will
cost you between 500 and a 1000 dollars and lighter, more compact materials that
will cost about 40-50 dollars?

IMO, the publishers and most probably the writers of many text books should have
a special place in purgatory reserved for them. With little research, many
errors, and much plagiarism from other texts they profiteer on the backs of
students who are required to use the text books. When a new edition comes out
every third year or so with little or no changes besides different colours,
perhaps a changed layout, and the only change that was guaranteed a change in
the numbering of the exercises how can it be considered anything else other than
robbery.

Of course the abject laziness of the professors for not coming up with a bank of
exercises of their own so that a student could save 90 to 150 dollars and work
without the text book from class notes is inexcusable (IMO). But then again most
engineering and science exams only have a four or five year cycle between the
reuse of exam questions so it's hardly surprising they won't take the time for
class exercises and assignments.



Eric L. Dunn



^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
A new book on Single Sourcing has been released by William Andrew
Publishing: _Single Sourcing: Building Modular Documentation_
is now available at: http://www.williamandrew.com/titles/1491.html.

Order RoboHelp X3 today and receive a $100 mail in rebate and a FREE
WebHelp Merge Module for merging multiple Help systems on any desktop
or server. Order online today at http://www.ehelp.com/techwr-l

---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as:
archive -at- raycomm -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot-  Visit
http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.