Comments on: Jump in before all the water is gone http://www.spiritedthought.com/2007/10/28/jump-in-before-all-the-water-is-gone/ Getting my head around my mind Fri, 21 Nov 2008 12:09:41 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.3 By: Frank Jania http://www.spiritedthought.com/2007/10/28/jump-in-before-all-the-water-is-gone/#comment-2527 Frank Jania Mon, 29 Oct 2007 13:12:37 +0000 http://www.spiritedthought.com/2007/10/28/jump-in-before-all-the-water-is-gone/#comment-2527 <blockquote>...but when they enter the work force, most of the emails, papers and presentations they will give should approximate the level they develop for class work.</blockquote> Should they be? Sure, but I'm not sure that I've seen that as the precedent. Most of the emails and presentations that I see at work wouldn't qualify as exemplars, and I'll make that generalization over broad range people that I've worked with. More often than not their email or presentations are hastily crafted and not really thought out at all. I almost wonder if communications won't get better as a result of all of the time students spend online as the result of a shifting norm in style. The ancestor of the English language sounded little like what we speak today, but it evolved into something that is mutually intelligible. Will the style of communications evolve into something that is mutually intelligible but more, say, efficient? (I'm not saying that I wouldn't lament the loss of nuance for the sake of efficiency, but if that is the path of evolution I don't think I'd fight to change it. I wouldn't mind helping direct it though...)

…but when they enter the work force, most of the emails, papers and presentations they will give should approximate the level they develop for class work.

Should they be? Sure, but I’m not sure that I’ve seen that as the precedent. Most of the emails and presentations that I see at work wouldn’t qualify as exemplars, and I’ll make that generalization over broad range people that I’ve worked with.

More often than not their email or presentations are hastily crafted and not really thought out at all. I almost wonder if communications won’t get better as a result of all of the time students spend online as the result of a shifting norm in style.

The ancestor of the English language sounded little like what we speak today, but it evolved into something that is mutually intelligible. Will the style of communications evolve into something that is mutually intelligible but more, say, efficient?

(I’m not saying that I wouldn’t lament the loss of nuance for the sake of efficiency, but if that is the path of evolution I don’t think I’d fight to change it. I wouldn’t mind helping direct it though…)

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