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From: render@m.cs.uiuc.edu
Newsgroups: comp.software-eng
Subject: Re: software engineers
Message-ID: <39400021@m.cs.uiuc.edu>
Date: 7 May 89 18:41:00 GMT
References: <1146@psueea.UUCP>
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Nf-ID: #R:psueea.UUCP:1146:m.cs.uiuc.edu:39400021:000:1058
Nf-From: m.cs.uiuc.edu!render    May  7 13:41:00 1989


Written  8:33 pm  May  5, 1989 by warren@jove.cs.pdx.edu:
>Sure software engineers spend a great deal of their time debugging,
>coding, designing, etc.  I think many of us are missing one VERY
>important activity (that software engineers COULD be prepared for
>in school) --- communicating.  I find that many of my students (and
>many new programmers/software engineers I have worked with) have a
>very difficult time of communicating with others, both orally and
>in writing.  

When I was an undergrad in CS, we were required to take at least two 
"communications" courses.  They could be either public-speaking or rhetoric. 
They turned out to be among the most useful things I have studied with respect
to application in later life.  I've always thought that engineers in general
have poor writing and speaking skills and should have higher expectations
thrust upon them.  As an aside, we were also required to take two management 
courses, something I have found very helpful in life but fairly uncommon in 
CS curricula.

Hal Render
render@cs.uiuc.edu