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Subject:Innate Abilities are Divisive? Dismissive? How? From:Vince Putman <PUTMV -at- MAIL -dot- SYNTRON -dot- COM> Date:Mon, 8 May 1995 14:48:14 CST
Robert,
Kindly consider the attitude and aptitude, while "training and experience"
will NOT ever leave anyone "unaffected", it can not be a substitute for
"natural ability". You have that ability and admit it or not, it was not
force-fed (that's horrifying) into you. Unless you have just taken the
opposite tack in a race for words, just look at the result of attempts to
make silk purses out of . . .
All excellent writers have innate talent which is brought out by
experience. All bad writers have no business in our business. I am, :-)
Vince Putman in Houston | Insults are the last weapons of those
PutmV -at- mail -dot- syntron -dot- com | who have been defeated by the facts.
713-647-7223 FAX 579-7709 | Eschew Gratuitous Obfuscation
Date: Wed, 3 May 1995 20:47:42 PDT
From: Robert Plamondon <robert -at- PLAMONDON -dot- COM>
Subject: Re: Innate Talents, etc.
> It does not take a Communications or Engineering degree to make
> a good Technical Writer. It takes the equivalent of both AND the
> INNATE talent to write to be a real TechWriter. Ya either got it or
> you don't . . .
This is the Age of Science. Kindly suggest a mechanism, or pony
up some evidence, that writing ability is somehow intrinsic, and
unaffected by training and experience. Because, if it is, it's
unlike every other "natural ability" ever studied.
Personally, I find assumptions about "innate abilities" to be divisive
and dismissive. I've seen people who "can't sing" turn into wonderful
singers; people who, like Barbie, find that "math is hard" turn into
scientists and engineers; and people who "can't write" develop into
excellent writers.
What's so horrifying about the idea that people can learn?
