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From: gtf@gatech.EDU (George Fulton Jr.)
Newsgroups: net.cse
Subject: Re: What should CS teach?
Message-ID: <4613@gatech.EDU>
Date: Sat, 4-Oct-86 13:17:53 EDT
Article-I.D.: gatech.4613
Posted: Sat Oct  4 13:17:53 1986
Date-Received: Wed, 8-Oct-86 12:15:57 EDT
References: <929@usl.UUCP> <1598@tektools.UUCP>
Organization: School of Information and Computer Science, Georgia Tech, Atlanta
Lines: 46
Summary: agree with english not with accounting




In article <1598@tektools.UUCP> barbaraz@tektools.UUCP (Barbara Zanzig) writes:
>In article <929@usl.UUCP> elg@usl.UUCP (Eric Lee Green) writes:
>[...]
>> 3) Accounting: ...
>> 
>> 4) English and History: ...
>
>I have a feeling these suggestions are going to create quite a discussion!
>
>I would add to the English requirement: lots and lots of English
>composition.  I see English lit. as helping develop a well-rounded
>person, but I've found my writing skills indispensable to my work.  I
>took 2 semesters of regular English Comp. plus a term of Technical
>Writing, and I still would like to take a refresher every couple of
>years or so just for the discipline and critiques.
>
>Whether you intend to go into CS research or industry, what they don't
>tell you in school is that a lot of the "real world" job is writing -
>everything from reports and memos to articles, proposals,
>specifications, procedures, and just about any other kind of document
>you could think of.
>

The English and History requirments are probably a standard part of the
core curriculum at almost every school regardless of major.  But for
a computer scientist technical writing is a neccesity (and maybe a 
good course in public speaking?)  I don't know how many technical
people I have seen who couldn't communicate their ideas (no matter
how good the ideas are) to others.

As far as the accounting courses go: these have no place in a computer
science program.  Maybe they belong in a data processing program geared 
toward business applications.  However, as an undergraduate, I did take
a couple of accounting courses (by choice) and I have found them very
useful in everyday life.  As a matter of fact, I consider the tax course
to be the most useful course I took and I would recommend this course
to anyone who plans to submit a tax return to the IRS.  (Maybe this
will change with the new tax plan, but I don't think so.)

Tom Fulton
School of Information & Computer Science, Georgia Tech, Atlanta GA 30332
CSNet:  gtf @ GATech	ARPA:	gtf%GATech.CSNet @ CSNet-Relay.ARPA
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