Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!purdue!decwrl!megatest!djones
From: djones@megatest.UUCP (Dave Jones)
Newsgroups: comp.software-eng
Subject: Re: software engineers
Message-ID: <4703@goofy.megatest.UUCP>
Date: 8 May 89 21:53:47 GMT
References: <1146@psueea.UUCP>
Organization: Megatest Corporation, San Jose, Ca
Lines: 20

From article <1146@psueea.UUCP>, by warren@jove.cs.pdx.edu (Warren Harrison):
...
> I think many of us are missing one VERY
> important activity (that software engineers COULD be prepared for
> in school) --- communicating.
>
...

I did a two year stint as a visiting associate professor at a university
in Ohio. When I told my students that communication skills were very important
to programmers, they just flat out didn't believe me.

I discovered that very few even owned a dictionary. So, I told them I would give
the equivalent of a quiz grade of 100 to every student who would bring a
dictionary to class.

Only one student out of two sections brought in the book. A friend of mine who
also taught there told me that if I didn't want to get into trouble, I better not
do that again. Only the textbook committee could make requirements about which
books students are required to have, he said.