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From: chuqui@cae780.UUCP (Chuq Von Rospach)
Newsgroups: net.flame
Subject: Re: good grammar
Message-ID: <253@cae780.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 23-Dec-83 18:20:17 EST
Article-I.D.: cae780.253
Posted: Fri Dec 23 18:20:17 1983
Date-Received: Mon, 26-Dec-83 00:43:25 EST
References: <428@ihuxq.UUCP>
Organization: CAESystems, Inc. Sunnyvale
Lines: 38

Another point to ponder:

    Most of the people on the net who have significant problems with the
    syntax and spelling of English have no problems with those same things
    in C, Lisp, Fortran, or any of a half dozen languages. When you think
    about it, it is much harder to write a properly structured and
    informative lecture in C (i.e. a program) than it is in English (i.e a
    letter) because the recipient is much less intelligent (a compiler vs.
    a person). MOST people who are bad at English spelling and grammar are
    that way because they are lazy and they haven't worked on their
    personal communication skills nearly as hard as they have their machine
    communication skills. There are exceptions of course, such as dyslectic
    people and others with learning disabilities, but I don't believe for a
    second that most programmers have those problems. You just have to look
    at the quality of the code and the quality of the documentation to see
    where the problem is.

    I don't claim to be perfect (or even good) with my English and writing,
    but I'm trying. I have very little (or no) patience with those who
    don't bother, because it tells me that they are more interested in
    talking to their machines than they are to me, and I find that rather
    insulting. Besides, from experience I have found that programmers who
    can speak and write well are much better employees overall than those
    who are great and hacking things together, but terrible at explaining
    what they did and how they did it.

To the flamers: The point should not be chastisement, but assistance. Don't
yell at people when they make a mistake, help them understand it so that
they don't make it again! This is probably something that is more
appropriate to mail as well (*hint hint*).

To flamees: A dictionary is a start, but only a start (spell is a nice
psuedo-person compiler as well). The only way to become a better writer and
user of English is to USE it, and accept criticism with a positive
viewpoint. Don't get defensive, get better!


impro