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From: wbralick@afit-ab.arpa (William A. Bralick)
Newsgroups: comp.edu
Subject: Re: engineering students and verbal skills
Message-ID: <858@afit-ab.arpa>
Date: 26 Jan 89 14:00:31 GMT
References: <19244@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> <5618@phoenix.Princeton.EDU> <19443@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> <614@uceng.UC.EDU>
Reply-To: wbralick@blackbird.afit.af.mil (William A. Bralick)
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Organization: Air Force Institute of Technology; WPAFB, OH
Lines: 43

In article <614@uceng.UC.EDU> dmocsny@uceng.UC.EDU (daniel mocsny) writes:
>In article <19443@agate.BERKELEY.EDU>, matloff@bizet.Berkeley.EDU (Norman Matloff) writes:
>> In my grad course last quarter, only 1 out of 15 reports
>> was written clearly.  [In fact, I heaped SO much praise on that one student 
>> for writing so well, that she must have been a bit puzzled.  :-) ] 
>...
>> In fact, if you go back to my original postings, you'll see that I really 
>> was implicitly putting the blame on the FACULTY, for not adequately warning 
>> the students about the need for good verbal skills. 
>
>I heartily agree with this. The entire technical community has developed
>many bad writing habits. Since engineering schools do not teach students
>to write, students learn to write by subconsciously adapting to the
>style they read. That style is frequently abysmal. 

How much of this can we attribute to publish-or-perish?

     J. Scott Armstrong, a professor at the University of 
     Pennsylvania's Wharton School and editor of the _Journal 
     of Forecasting_, conducted his own analysis of academic 
     writing and concluded that professors who wish to be 
     published in the academic press must: "(1) _not_ pick an 
     important problem, (2) _not_ challenge existing beliefs, 
     (3) _not_ obtain surprising results, (4) _not_ use simple 
     methods, (5) _not_ provide full disclosure of methodology, 
     sources, and findings, and (6) _not_ write clearly." 

     Armstrong, J. Scott
     "Barriers  to Scientific Contributions: The Author's Formula" 
     The Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 1982, p. 197

quoted by:

          Sykes, Charles J.
          ProfScam: Professors and the Demise of Higher Education
          Regnery Gateway, Washington, D. C., 1988

Regards,
-- 
Will Bralick : wbralick@afit-ab.arpa  |  If we desire to defeat the enemy,
Air Force Institute of Technology,    |  we must proportion our efforts to 
                                      |  his powers of resistance.
with disclaimer;  use disclaimer;     |               - Carl von Clauswitz