The Pen is Mightier than the Sliderule

I am amused... and unamused.

I have taken up a graduate assistant position in the Engineering Department as one of my new "jobs." The professor needed someone to help grade papers for his tech writing class (to the tune of 100 pages per week--eeek!).

Now the upside of this is that I get exposed to some really neat ideas. I mean, I'm just not going to be reading about Albert Borgmann's focal things and practices, Cognitive Radio, Stretchable Silicon, and Trojan Particles in an English class. That part's brilliant, just fantastic.

However, I am also forced to endure some of the most torturous use of the English language I have ever witnessed. To whit, a random sample: "Technology, generally, means application of science and knowledge like designs and productivity but it becomes to like, now a days, industrial or commercial objectives which leads human life to a agonizing critical position that never ends til one realizes the diminutive gap between technology and contemporary society or forthcoming life."

I don't even know where to begin deconstructing that sentence.

On the other hand, there is something gratifying, and more than a little amusing, about my having some influence (positive, I hope) on the writing skills of these future Engineers. To paraphrase the words of the great Dolly Levi, "Knowledge is like money: It should be spread around encouraging young things to grow."