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With all the talk about what a TW course should or shouldn't teach I think =
maybe we've missed a larger issue: Is teaching tech writing really =
something a college should be doing?
Seems to me that an undergraduate education is, or should be, about *how* =
to think. A major is, in a sense, a world view: It trains you to ask *a =
specific* set of questions as a way of filtering the facts you encounter. =
A traditional undergraduate education provides background and grounding =
and so on. It is not, nor is it meant to be, directly useful.
A trade school, in contrast, teaches specific, applicable skills. These =
skills can be extremely complex-- such as how to do tech writing or how to =
be an accountant. It's the focus on how-to that differentiates it-- and =
I'm not saying it's better or worse, just different-- from a traditional =
undergraduate curriculum.
FWIW.
Stacey Kahn
SKahn -at- wb -dot- com
speaking for myself and not for my employers
