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O P I N I O N
Where art thou, writers?
Sadly, fewer and fewer of us are interested in developing writing, speaking, or other communication skills as a significant professional goal.
Y ou may not be thinking much of it at the moment, but what you and I are doing right now is rather atypical. I’m a scientist who’s writing from scratch – and much more impressively, you’re taking the time to read about a topic that isn’t strictly technical in content. I point this out only because those of us in the professional practice of science and engineering are not exactly known for our wellspring of communication skills. And let’s face it, we’ve chosen to pursue fields which involve the analysis of problems that aren’t easily communicated in common narrative prose.
David Coyne
Unfortunately, this often leaves us in neglect of three very important audiences: our clients, the related industries with which we must collaborate, and the public in general. To all of these, we must be able to show the value in what we do, or we risk lessening our impact toward the greater good. Despite the emergence of multiple new technologies which have turned the nature of communications on its head over the past 20 years, there is still an absolute need for someone, somewhere, to make sense of what we do and put it down in writing for others to understand. Sadly, fewer and fewer of us are interested
in developing writing, speaking, or other communication skills as a significant professional goal. At the university level, the lack of focus on communications is already plainly evident. Most science and engineering graduates report having had little to no writing experience at all in college. Perhaps most distressingly, many will cite their lack of interest in communications as one of the reasons they chose their field of study. But this is precisely the opposite of what our profession
See DAVID COYNE, page 10
THE ZWEIG LETTER October 21, 2019, ISSUE 1317
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