Re: This is interesting...

["David Neeley" <dbneeley -at- gmail -dot- com>]

Emily,

I respectfully disagree that "...in our society, good writing is
considered to be a masculine characteristic." (Notice, please, I am
*not* yelling!)

Not only is it widely observed that girls tend to score higher on
verbal skills testing than boys (fortunately with the occasional
exception!), but there are many counterexamples.

One who stands out is Peggy Noonan, who writes for the Wall Street
Journal Online these days and was a speech writer for Presidents
Reagan and Bush 41. The quality of her writing is so outstanding that
I make it a point to read her column each week simply to enjoy the
writing even when I do not agree with her. See, for example, her
current column: http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/pnoonan/

However, I do suspect rather strongly that there is a perception that
science, engineering, and other technical subjects are more often the
province of males--although of course that somewhat flies in the face
of rising female enrollments in many of our technical programs.

I would be quite interested in reading about the algorithms used for
the determination tool, however, to find out the extent of gender bias
they may contain.

Personally, I find good writing from many people without respect to
gender or other more or less superficial differences.

David

From: Emily Berk <emily -at- armadillosoft -dot- com>

"My theory (and please don't yell at me -- I'm not saying this is how
things ought to be) is that writers by many of us professional writers
are "better designed" and, in our society, good writing is considered
to be a masculine characteristic."
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