The bottom line is:  there are some very bright young people out there
with
very good ideas -- but some of them do not know how to communicate -- even
verbally -- and a larger number don't have the skills to put their
thoughts
on paper in a way that others can understand.

LRL

Liane Reif-Lehrer, PhD
PO Box 645
Belmont, MA  02178
Tel: 781-863-1117;  Fax:  781-674-0436

I certainly agree with Liane that lately communication/writing skills have
been overlooked as a necessary part of education.

I believe that we can help faculty improve their writing skills by
offering editing comments to their project narrative rather than
writing it for them. These comments can address ways to tailor their
writing style to the sponsor's guidelines, pointing out overlooked or
illogical information, suggesting ways to strengthen their proposals, etc.
It is rather like the give a man a fish and you feed him for a day - teach
him how to fish and you enable him to feed himself for a lifetime philosophy.

I know that there are times when the creek runs dry, and I will rewrite
sections of a proposal if we are in a time crunch.  However, I will not be
there to write the final report or scholarly papers that result from the
completed project.  If I help the PI improve their writing skills by
making them write, the project results will also be improved.  We are
after all a "Learn by doing" university here at Cal Poly.

Sharon

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Sharon Kuhlenschmidt
Grants Development Office
California Polytechnic State University
San Luis Obispo, CA 93407
PHONE:  (805)756-2982
FAX:    (805)756-5466
EMAIL:  xxxxxx@calpoly.edu
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