Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!princeton!caip!think!mit-eddie!cybvax0!frog!wjr
From: wjr@frog.UUCP (STella Calvert)
Newsgroups: net.misc
Subject: Teaching Writing (was Re: Writing, programming, music and mechanics)
Message-ID: <921@frog.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 24-Jun-86 00:08:38 EDT
Article-I.D.: frog.921
Posted: Tue Jun 24 00:08:38 1986
Date-Received: Thu, 26-Jun-86 02:15:50 EDT
References: <2671@sdcc6.UUCP> <1445@ihuxn.UUCP> <2679@sdcc6.UUCP> <1452@ihuxn.UUCP>
Reply-To: wjr@frog.UUCP (STella Calvert)
Organization: The Church of the Holy Starship
Lines: 22

In article <1452@ihuxn.UUCP> gadfly@ihuxn.UUCP (Gadfly) writes:
>No, you *don't* teach writing.

I'm not sure I agree with you.  I've worked with a programmer on
manuals, taking his first draft, suggesting corrections, and
explaining _why_ I made those fixes.  Whether I actually taught him to
write or not is unclear.  But both he and I _think_ there was a causal
relation between my nit-picking and a notable improvement in his
writing.

I do agree with most of what you said.  Standard punctuation and
grammar cannot make bad ideas good, but they can prevent the loss of
good ideas in a fog of ambiguity.  

But if, when I creep line by line through someone's text, suggesting
ways to make their ideas stand out more clearly, I'm not teaching 
writing, what _am_ I doing?  We both thought I was doing _something_!

				STella Calvert

			Love is the law, love under will!

Guest on Account: decvax!frog!wjr