Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site opus.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!floyd!harpo!seismo!hao!cires!nbires!opus!rcd From: rcd@opus.UUCP Newsgroups: net.college,net.flame Subject: Re: Univ. of Minn. CS Dept. Message-ID: <293@opus.UUCP> Date: Fri, 30-Mar-84 20:41:35 EST Article-I.D.: opus.293 Posted: Fri Mar 30 20:41:35 1984 Date-Received: Sat, 31-Mar-84 07:47:18 EST References: <1057@umn-ucc.UUCP> Organization: NBI, Boulder Lines: 35 <> > This is a flame about the University of Minnesota's Computer Science > Department and the attitude about education in general in Minnesota. The content of the flame is addressed at the lack of computer resources and good faculty - but it deserves a flame in response. The number of errors in the original article makes it difficult to read. I think that anyone who expects a degree from a respectable institution should have a reasonable command of the language. I don't mind the occasional typo - the net is a volatile medium and it's not really reasonable to expect everything to be letter-perfect before you send it off. However, I found: ...a handful of misspellings of common words: insain, dependant, transfering, developement, charactor, origional ...a truly unique grammatical construction: "I am a transfered to here." ...some lack of understanding of the proper noun: pascal, cray, cyber ...the usual misuse of "it's" as a possessive <> I once taught Computer Science. It annoyed me no end to have to read exam answers which were so laden with grammatical errors that they slowed my reading and interfered with my comprehension. I once flunked a student because all of his answers to questions requiring prose were so garbled that I couldn't understand them. I would do it again - it doesn't matter that you understand everything perfectly if you can't communicate it. <> (Any inane misspellings, grammatical errors, or inept constructions in the foregoing are the result of a clumsy keyboard and malicious software in our mail daemon.) -- Relax - don't worry - have a homebrew. {hao,ucbvax,allegra}!nbires!rcd