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Subject:RE: Help - my consultants cannot write! From:"Michael West" <mike -dot- west -at- bigpond -dot- com> To:"'Edwin Skau'" <eddy -dot- skau -at- gmail -dot- com> Date:Mon, 10 Oct 2011 21:36:10 +1100
I'm sorry, your comments don't (to me) make sense in relation to the
original post. This is not about translation or ESL according to Andrew
Plato's comments. No mention was made of problems with the English language
generally. The issue as I understand it is about writing clearly and
succinctly, and that can only follow from thinking clearly.
As for what you call the "wiring" of the brain, I know nothing about that,
but I do know that the overarching purpose of formal education is to teach
people how to think clearly and express themselves clearly. At least it used
to be - God knows what they think they're doing nowadays. My personal view
that is that many teachers are not all that capable of thinking clearly;
they are too loaded up with dubious ideological baggage and political
correctness. (Disclaimer: I'm married to a teacher who is a notable
exception to this generality.)
--
Mike West
From: Edwin Skau [mailto:eddy -dot- skau -at- gmail -dot- com]
Sent: Monday, 10 October 2011 6:04 PM
To: Michael West
Cc: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: Re: Help - my consultants cannot write!
> Clear writing requires clear thinking. Well-educated people can
> write clearly and succinctly.
True. However, they probably think clearly in a different language, and
don't translate that into English very well.
> People who haven't developed that skill by the
> time they finish their education probably never will.
Also generally true, although I've seen people pick up skills late in life
that their mental OS didn't originally seem to provide for. The old thinking
on this subject believed that the brain couldn't be rewired, but that has
changed in the face of new evidence to the contrary.
Edwin
On Mon, Oct 10, 2011 at 5:45 AM, Michael West <mike -dot- west -at- bigpond -dot- com> wrote:
> I am in desperate need of tech writer training for my consultants. I
> have a bunch of information security consultants who cannot write. Its
> infuriating. I edit their material and I want to wring their necks.
> They blather and yammer on about this and that - I need to teach these
> people how to succinctly express complex ideas and write reports.
Forget it. Clear writing requires clear thinking. Well-educated people can
write clearly and succinctly. People who haven't developed that skill by the
time they finish their education probably never will.
You could try sending them to your local Info Mapping franchise to help them
learn to organise their blather. Well-organised blather often passes for
clear writing. A small percentage of them will benefit from the course.
My memory may be faulty, but I seem to remember a certain discussion in this
forum, a while back, in which one contributor maintained that "everyone
knows how to write" and that the most important consideration in technical
communication is how much the writer knows about the subject matter. Has
that person changed his mind, or have I imagined the whole thing?
--
Mike West
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