RE: Help - my consultants cannot write!

[Kat Kuvinka <katkuvinka -at- hotmail -dot- com>]

We get terrible resumes from candidates with MSs, MBAs, and PhDs, applying 
for development, SQA, management positions, even some tech writers--and 
they can get their foot in the door if they have the right skill set and can talk the talk.

Seems
 this inability of some of the well-educated to express themselves 
succinctly on paper using proper punctuation and consistent tense is 
highly tolerated.  Why should they change if they don't have to?


> 
> I agree that "well-educated" carries the connotation that you suggest, and I too see no good reason why an engineer with a university degree shouldn't be able to write competently. I would add that it is dangerous to omit humanities from any university curriculum, and I share some of your distain for contemporary education, in which people can earn degrees in subjects that have little content in themselves, such as "education," or in which the content is highly limited and, therefore, of dubious value, such as in "ethnic studies." Anyone who graduates with a university degree should be able to write competently. On the other hand, I prefer the European model in which not everyone is expected to go to university and in which trade schools play a much greater role.
> 
> I wonder if Technical Writing should be a university degree or trade school certificate. How about engineering?
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Michael West [mailto:mike -dot- west -at- bigpond -dot- com] 
> Sent: Monday, October 10, 2011 12:59 PM
> To: Porrello, Leonard; 'Edwin Skau'
> Cc: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
> Subject: RE: Help - my consultants cannot write!
> 
> Oh, dear. Perhaps I am a relic of a dead civilization. When I speak of a
> well-educated person, I do not mean someone who plays basketball well, nor
> do I believe the purpose of education to produce basketball players, nor in
> the world I inhabit can a person unable to write a coherent paragraph be
> regarded as a well-educated person. In the culture I live in, a
> well-educated person, whatever his or her occupational specialty, knows how
> to process, evaluate and communicate information in a manner appropriate to
> the audience and the subject matter.
> 
> A "consultant" who can't write clearly and succinctly? There was a time when
> that would have been regarded as comical.
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Porrello, Leonard [mailto:lporrello -at- illumina -dot- com] 
> Sent: Tuesday, 11 October 2011 4:19 AM
> To: 'Michael West'; 'Edwin Skau'
> Cc: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
> Subject: RE: Help - my consultants cannot write!
> 
> By "different language," I thought Edwin was using "language" loosely to
> describe different modes of thinking. Some people "think" primarily
> kinesthetically; others are primarily visuospatial, auditory, olfactory,
> gustatory, and even social thinkers. Someone who is a genius at and very
> well educated in basketball may not be able to write a coherent paragraph.
> Similarly, someone who can write and even reason exceptionally well may not
> be able to do advanced mathematics well (and vice-versa). And then there is
> wisdom, which is apparently transcendent.
> 
> 
> 
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