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RE: On topic: NPR interview on lack of writing ability in the workplace
Subject:RE: On topic: NPR interview on lack of writing ability in the workplace From:SteveFJong -at- aol -dot- com To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Wed, 4 Dec 2002 07:53:37 EST
I read an essay that said that a lawyer in Abraham Lincoln's time mainly
needed to develop standup oral argument skills, and that all US laws fit in a
bookcase. Lincoln was largely self-educated; he was a genius, but it was
something that could be done. Today, the laws are enormous (the Homeland
Security Act runs 484 pages), and most of a lawyer's job is reading and
writing. Many are not up to the task.
I just wrapped up a semester of teaching a writing class for first-year law
students (I was moonlighting), and for the most part they can't write at all.
Correcting papers was a lot of work--two sections, 16 students, two drafts of
six papers each--and not least of the effort was wading through their prose.
The best of them came in thinking legal writing had to be rendered in
legalese; the worst of them just could not string together a paragraph of
complete sentences.
This was not a first-tier law school, and the students I had were attending
at night while they held down day jobs. They're probably average working
people, just trying to better themselves (and I admire them for that). So I
can say the average writing level is very poor. I hope I helped raise it a
little.
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