Re: Help w/TW skills

[LynnDianne Beene <lbeene -at- UNM -dot- EDU>]

Bill--
        Your long message was informative and provocative.  First of
all I really appreciate your taking the time to put these thoughts
down for me.
        Next, I'm surprised (and pleased) at your suggestions about
reading (I'm on my way to Borders to get the Eco novel) and, in particular,
about the lifelong need to study, learn, practice, and investigate.
You hit on a point that worries me greatly. I know that I'm always
out trying to learn new ideas, strategies, techniques, etc.  And I
know that to make that search fruitful I'm not at all unwilling to
admit that I don't know, don't understand, need more information, can't
learn it all at one sitting.  Both these perspectives, however, are
miles away from what I see in my students.  Not only do they want all
the necessary skills in one class, they want that one class to be
the end of the process and the sure ticket to a good job.  [For 'good'
please read lucrative, fascinating, challenging, and guarantees of a
month's vacation and the right to leave work at 4:30 every day.]  When
I worked as a tech writer, I was always trying to figure out what
these engineers were talking about and whether I'd make it home in
time to sleep that night before the next proposal/document/newsletter
had to go out.
        So now I need to spend some time thinking through how to get
students to recognize that the real world and the ivory tower are not
so far apart:  in both worlds, it's best to continuing learning all the
time.  Maybe, in fact, that's my answer.

        More and ever more to think about.  Thanks for the info!

Lynn Beene                                      email: lbeene -at- unm -dot- edu
B & F Writers                              Albuquerque, New Mexico 87123

Is it not, then, better to be ridiculous and friendly than clever and hostile?
                                                --Socrates