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Subject:Re: Tech Writer's test From:Stephen Victor <svictor -at- LGC -dot- COM> Date:Tue, 19 Dec 1995 09:32:02 -0600
If a "teacher" pulled any of this junk on me, I'd head straight for the
dean's office. Was this supposed to be a joke? It certainly doesn't look
like a legitimate academic exercise to me.
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Stephen P. Victor svictor -at- lgc -dot- com
Landmark Graphics Corporation svictor -at- compassnet -dot- com
15150 Memorial Drive http://www.cda.ulpgc.es/steve.html
Houston, TX 77079 USA De gustibus non disputandum est
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David Blyth wrote:
> Hi All;
> There's a chance that I may be asked to teach a Tech Writing class on
> the JC level sometime in the next few months. In the true spirit of
> Tech Writing, I'm trying to write a test (heh, heh, heh).
> Here are some of the ideas I had. Any others?
> 1) Number the questions ramdomly (or use "A,X D" for some, and
> "i, iv, CCXX" for others). Ask the student to figure out how
> many questions there are and to come up with a consistent
> pattern.
> 2) Ask the student to "find the four Tech Writing errors in this
> test". Make damn sure to include only two - one of them being
> that the word "four" should be "two".
> 3) Switch tests 2/3 of the way through the test period. Grade both.
> 4) Write at least one test question in a foreign language (or with
> very awful English).
> 5) Ask students "what color is the other side of this piece of paper?"
> Give points to any student who actually flips the paper over to
> look (even if all the test papers are white on both sides).
> 6) Leave one test question only partially written - then require
> the students to research what the test question _should_ be.
> (provide a means to do this).
> 7) Write one test question in HTML and require that the response
> is in Eroff.
> 8) Require students to carefully document how to make a photo copy
> on your machine. Jam the machine before the test.
> OK. I'm fresh out of ideas here - but maybe someone else has some more....
> Thanks!
> David (The Man) Blyth
> Technical Writer
> QUALCOMM
