Asytek.152
net.general
utcsrgv!utzoo!decvax!ucbvax!ARPAVAX:C70:sri-unix!hplabs!menlo70!sytek!msm
Thu Mar 11 14:32:31 1982
Grammar
Article 461:
From menlo70!hplabs!sri-unix!ucbvax!decvax!duke!ucf-cs!goldfarb \
Mon Mar 8 13:17:40 1982
Subject: grammar
Newsgroups: net.general
Why is it that we computer people abuse the English language so
miserably? Daily, I observe atrocious grammmar and perverse
spelling not only in work by students, but also in commercial
documents, in memos from my superiors, and in submissions to this
network. Where does the fault lie?
I can only hope that the situation improves before it gets worse.
Am I the last of the die-hard traditionalists or are there others
who have similar strong feelings?
Ben Goldfarb
..duke!ucf-cs!goldfarb
In my opinion, there is a very simple reason why Engineers, Computer
Scientists, and other technical people have such a poor command of the
English Language; very few English courses are required to receive a degree
from this country's universities. When I was a student at UCLA ('73-'77),
only one English class was required for engineering students. That is 10
weeks out of a total of four years!
Unfortunately, there is no easy cure. The engineering program at UCLA
required four years of taking four classes per quarter. Any additional
required classes would just lengthen the time necessary to finish the
program.
Michael S. Maiten
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