doug@alice.UUCP (Doug McIlroy) (01/06/85)
In a survey of 20 articles (a 100% sample) from net.cse "spell" turned up the following errors. Mere typos (commmunications, studens, etc.) have been excused. Almost all the articles were about computer ed in high schools. The errors came from the pushers and one unrelated flame. None came from the skeptics. Draw your own conclusions. accidently arguement beleive descrepencies descrete desireable dimentional irrelevent knowlege mabey (This one praised computer literacy.) technologicly writting Doug McIlroy Bell Labs
steiny@scc.UUCP (Don Steiny) (01/08/85)
> > In a survey of 20 articles (a 100% sample) from net.cse > "spell" turned up the following errors. > . . . > Draw your own conclusions. > I conclude that they did not run the articles through spell before posting. -- scc!steiny Don Steiny - Personetics @ (408) 425-0382 109 Torrey Pine Terr. Santa Cruz, Calif. 95060 ihnp4!pesnta -\ fortune!idsvax -> scc!steiny ucbvax!twg -/
mckeeman@wanginst.UUCP (William McKeeman) (01/08/85)
> In a survey of 20 articles (a 100% sample) from net.cse > "spell" turned up the following errors. > Mere typos (commmunications, studens, etc.) have been excused. > Almost all the articles were about computer ed in > high schools. The errors came from the pushers and > one unrelated flame. None came from the skeptics. > Draw your own conclusions. > > accidently > arguement > beleive > descrepencies > descrete > desireable > dimentional > irrelevent > knowlege > mabey (This one praised computer literacy.) > technologicly > writting > > Doug McIlroy > Bell Labs Two experiences with trying to solve this problem: 1. The Summer Institute in Computer Science presented a course in technical writing for software people some years ago. The instructor was first rate and the facilities (UC Santa Cruz) adequate. This was the only course (of about ten that summer) that had to be cancelled for lack of interest. 2. The Wang Institute offered an elective in Software Documentation for the current (Winter) semester. The situation and result was the same. We spent some time analyzing the failure. Conclusions: 1. Programmers want to write well but do not want to become writers. Taking a course is too likely to cause them to be "typecast". 2. When hard decisions have to be made, some technical topic (Compilers, Distributed Systems, etc. etc.) always seems somewhat more attractive than improving writing skills. Our present solution is to have a lecture on Writing Tools (WWB and the Wang VS equivalent) and another lecture on Writing Skills in the (required) course on Management Concepts. We are considering having an experienced technical writer available to students preparing their project documentation on the theory that we can sneak in instruction in the guise of help. /s/ Bill McKeeman ~decvax!wanginst!mckeeman D /s/ Bill McKeeman ~decvax!wanginst!mckeeman mckeeman at Wang