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Subject:Re: Fair wage From:Katherine Graden <kgraden -at- MAIL -dot- DANCRIS -dot- COM> Date:Thu, 13 Mar 1997 17:21:08 -0700
Well said, Mitch1
At 02:38 PM 3/13/97 -0600, Mitch Berg wrote:
>This list is taking one of its periodic swerves into an area where
>simple common sense would have prevented us being in the first place:
>
>Wing, Michael J wrote:
>>
>> All right! One of my favorite debates is raising its head again.
>>
>> <snip>
>> >
>> >Why? Because I believe ...that it's much easier to teach a..writer
programming or
>> >engineering than..to teach an equally bright programmer or engineer
>> >who's a poor writer how to write well.
>>
>> I couldn't disagree more. The "writing is harder than engineering"
>> response is usually made by someone who has never been an Engineer...
>> I think that is much, much harder to teach a Writer to subclass objects
>> or perform step analysis on a circuit than it is to teach an Engineer
>> not to end a sentence with a preposition.
>
>The answer to this, as to most things in life is "It Depends".
>
>My degree is English, with minors in Computer Science, German and
>History. My background is primarily in humanities...
>
>...and I find Object Oriented Design ("subclassing objects") quite
>intuitive. It shares a lot of basic concepts with Linguistics. Now,
>when you get into circuit design and testing, that's another matter -
>and it's of no concern to me, 'cuz I don't work in EEE.
>
>Which is easier to train in the other discipline? It depends. Michael
>makes the excellent point that engineers at least start out speaking and
>writing the language a little, while there's no general cultural
>requirement to understand material stress coefficients. That being
>said, beyond a certain point it IS hard to teach lots of engineers how
>to write well - esp. well-planned, organized, well-developed writing.
>
>So - Why argue about it? What IS the point?
>
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