Bill Pragnell wrote:

> I think much of the problem is that people don't seem to re-read their 
> work much, so they never realise what rubbish they wrote the first time. 
> If you're doing university assignments or projects, there's no 
> requirement for iteration - you *should* hone your writing carefully, 
> but most people pull all-nighters and never read it all the way through.

Heh. If I had a dollar for every report or user manual started 20 
minutes before the final submission date... ;-)


> This is where the honing comes in. When a PhD supervisor should be 
> making you start writing at least a year before you submit, then making 
> you revise your thesis almost continuously, you should bloody well end 
> up better at writing than when you started out.
> 
> Also, when you write academic papers in collaboration, the other authors 
> should be proofreading the whole document and giving complete feedback - 
> after all, their names are on it too, so any sloppy writing on the first 
> author's part reflects badly on them.
> 
> (IME at least, there's a good balance between writing and content here 
> in the UK.)

My mum seriously wanted me to do a PhD. Because, I mean, 6 years in 

every year of my degree, my grades became lower and lower. Fortunately I 
hit graduation before I started failing modules. Thus, a PhD is 
obviously the correct next step - especially given my pathologically 
weak writing skills.

What. The. Hell.

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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