[Leica] RE: While it is happening (B. D. Colen)writing goingdwnhll

[leicaman at sympatico.ca (Dan C)]

In business school, and in the real world of business, my reports were
always criticized for being too complex.  I was told to make my sentences
shorter.   There was even a software program that could analyze a report
and declare what grade level of education was required to fully understand
it, the presumption being that the score shouldn't be too high.

-dan c.



At 09:49 AM 24-06-04 -0400, B. D. Colen wrote:
>I can't disagree with the premise that the skills we value change - but
>- by any measure I've seen, our society is scientifically illiterate
>when compared to others in which there is universal schooling. And I'm
>not bemoaning the decline of writing skills from the perspective of a
>journalist, but rather from that of a citizen who believes that if we
>cannot communicate clearly, we are ultimately doomed as a society. The
>brilliant scientist who cannot convey his brilliance to others is far
>less likely to find sufficient funding for his work than the scientist
>who can communicate clearly - in writing and verbally.
>
>I tell the students in my undergrad science news writing class that I
>know full well very few of them will ever write a news story after
>leaving the class, and the few who do - because they work on the school
>paper - won't after graduating because they'll be headed for careers in
>the sciences. However, the skills they acquire in reducing a scientific
>journal report to a 350 word news story will help them in whatever they
>do in the future.
>
>B. D.