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From: horne-scott@cs.yale.edu (Scott Horne)
Newsgroups: comp.edu
Subject: Re: Against educational fads
Message-ID: <27916@cs.yale.edu>
Date: 21 Dec 90 05:50:14 GMT
References: <HARKCOM.90Dec13122346@potato.pa.Yokogawa.Co.jp> <9426:Dec1315:38:2390@kramden.acf.nyu.edu> <HARKCOM.90Dec14075348@potato.pa.Yokogawa.Co.jp>
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In article <HARKCOM.90Dec14075348@potato.pa.Yokogawa.Co.jp> harkcom@potato.pa.Yokogawa.Co.jp (Alton Harkcom) writes:
>
>In article <9426:Dec1315:38:2390@kramden.acf.nyu.edu>
>    brnstnd@kramden.acf.nyu.edu (Dan Bernstein) writes:
>
> =}In article <HARKCOM.90Dec13122346@potato.pa.Yokogawa.Co.jp> harkcom@potato.pa.Yokogawa.Co.jp (Alton Harkcom) writes:
> =}> In article <27743@cs.yale.edu> horne-scott@cs.yale.edu (Scott Horne)
< =}<       writes:
< =}<  =}Russell's article stated the
< =}<  =}(correct) opinion that writing skills are more important
< =}<  =}to most than typing skills.
< =}<    Even though I agree with your opinion on writing vs. word processing,
< =}< I still don't think it is THE 'correct' opinion.
< =}
< =}Writing skills are generally more important than typing skills. If this
< =}isn't a fact, what is?
<
<   For the 'educated' portion of the population who will have to present
<ideas which can be interpreted by others, it is important. For the vast
<majority of people who will never need to write much more than there name
<and an occasional shopping list, yet will have to deal with the coming
<computer age to survive, it is not so important. To those people, writing
<skills (creative, not copying) would be considered less important than
<than typing skills. And to those people, their opinion would be 'correct'
<and your opinion would be foolish. 

Strikes me that those people won't be doing much typing, anyway.  A few
secretaries will, but the rest won't be copying long passages into a computer;
and if they won't be doing much writing, they won't be creating much at the
computer.  What good are typing skills if you have nothing to type?

<In article <8470:Dec1313:48:5190@kramden.acf.nyu.edu>
<    brnstnd@kramden.acf.nyu.edu (Dan Bernstein) writes:
<
< =}No, it wouldn't. Programming experience does not substitute for writing
< =}experience. The latter is far more important in the real world.
< =}
< =}(My cynical side says that neither an ``interactive timeline'' nor a
< =}history term paper is much more than an exercise in bull, but at least
< =}writing bull is more of an intellectual challenge than coding it.)
<
<   Programming experience does not substitute for writing experience,
<but that does not make writing better then programming. Programming is
<an intellectual challenge also.

Yes, I agree.  It's a different sort of intellectual challenge.

<   You are entitled to your opinions, and the rest of us are entitled
<to ours...

I'm afraid I still don't see how one can form a sensible case for the "opinion"
that typing is more important than writing, except for professional typists.

					--Scott

-- 
Scott Horne                               ...!{harvard,cmcl2,decvax}!yale!horne
horne@cs.Yale.edu      SnailMail:  Box 7196 Yale Station, New Haven, CT   06520
203 436-1817                    Residence:  Rm 1817 Silliman College, Yale Univ
Uneasy lies the head that wears the _gao1 mao4zi_.