Xref: utzoo sci.lang:4386 comp.cog-eng:1040 sci.psychology:1697
Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ncar!tank!sophist!goer
From: goer@sophist.uucp (Richard Goerwitz)
Newsgroups: sci.lang,comp.cog-eng,sci.psychology
Subject: Re: Effects of poor writing? (Long)
Message-ID: <2970@tank.uchicago.edu>
Date: 28 Apr 89 03:52:33 GMT
References: <39131@bbn.COM> <1982@trantor.harris-atd.com> <2947@tank.uchicago.edu> <17158@mimsy.UUCP>
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Reply-To: goer@sophist.UUCP (Richard Goerwitz)
Organization: University of Chicago
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In article <17158@mimsy.UUCP> folta@tove.umd.edu.UUCP (Wayne Folta) writes:
>IMHO, a general rule is: one's knowledge, intelligence, and curiosity are
>*usually* reflected in the breadth and depth of one's reading and the breadth
>and depth of one's reading is usually reflected in one's grammar and
>spelling.

Interesting.  But am I the only one that gets impatient with this sort
of thing?  Sci.lang is a good place to argue out linguistic theories.
So, if this is your theory, please offer us some evidence - an experiment
or an observation of some kind that will provide us with some basis for
agreeing with you.  You don't have to be a "linguist" per se.  We just
need something tangible to work with.

No offense or anything.  My best friend is a cabinet maker who has hardly
picked up a book since he got out of High School.  He's also one of the
most intelligent and thoughtful people I know, and he has a thriving bus-
iness as a fine woodworker in Bucks County, Pennsylvania.  In my experi-
ence, this sort of person is not rare.  If we are to posit some correlation
between ability to spell or concern for things like typos and ability to
perform in a real, working environment, doing things that may or may not
involve spelling and typing things correctly, we must offer something more
than personal feelings.  Or else we gotta move to talk.lang....

                                       -Richard L. Goerwitz
                                       goer@sophist.uchicago.edu
                                       rutgers!oddjob!gide!sophist!goer