Re: Definitely Defiant

["Eric J. Ray" <ejray -at- OKWAY -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU>]

     Problem is, many people find it much easier to teach a
     iron-clad rule than to explain a general principle with
     many exceptions. "Don't use passive voice" is easier to
     teach and enforce than "use passive voice sparingly and
     only when appropriate."

     Additionally, in the current climate in US public
     schools, teachers have to be able to defend themselves
     and their courses against the inevitable grade protests
     from parents. If they teach *RULES* and the students
     get them wrong, that's easy to defend. However, if they
     teach PRINCIPLES, they have a harder time when dear
     Jonny got a poor grade on a test.

     I'm not saying that this is right, but it is often so.
     I agree that many peoples' writing is more-or-less
     ruined by k-12 English classes.

     Eric
     ejray -at- okway -dot- okstate -dot- edu
     Been there, done that, therefore I'm a happy technical
     communicator, not a frustrated secondary school
     teacher. Teaching is great--the associated frustrations
     aren't.



______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: Definitely Defiant
Author:  Harold Snyder <ENSNYDER -at- ECUVM1 -dot- BITNET> at SMTP
Date:    6/1/95 8:46 AM


The "Defini/ately and Egnlish teachers" thread has worked its way around
our list for the past few days. Yesterday, a former lurker "delurked" and
suggested that engineers had been damaged by 12+ years of poorly taught
English.

Although I have a tendancy to agree with those who think that we learned
all the grammar we could by 8th grade, it has been my experience that two
students, sitting in the same class, receiving the same instruction, often
receive different grades (which is a polite way of saying that some students
learn better than other students, and some of these students become doctors
and other engineers). Yet both were taught the same grammar and English
mechanics. If engineers (and some tech writers) use poor grammar, let's
their shortcomings where they belong--on them and not their teachers.

Furthermore, good grammar and good spelling may not be the two most
important fundamental of communication, but if we can remove all the "noise"
(poor grammar, mispelled words, proper punctuation, etc.), perhaps the
message will be received more efficiently (so our audience can "get it" and
not have to figure it out for themselves).

Having stepped down from my soapbox of American English, I'll fade away...

No offense intended.

Hal

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+ Hal Snyder, Professor of English | Technical Editing; Business,          +
+ Dept. of English (GCB 2115)      |  Scientific, and Technical Writing    +
+ East Carolina University         | ENSNYDER -at- ECUVM -dot- CIS -dot- ECU -dot- EDU            +
+ Greenville, NC 27858-4353        | ENSNYDER -at- ECUVM1 or Voice 919/328-6669 +
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