Re: Background

[Karen Kay <karenk -at- NETCOM -dot- COM>]

Rose Wilcox said:
> There *are* studies that suggest that folks who speak two languages
> in the home as children tend to be more intelligent than those who
> speak only one.

But there is a very *big* difference between learning a foreign
language as a child and as an adult. Learning a second language as an
adult has not been shown to have a direct effect on verbal ability or
intelligence as far as I know. (I'm not a psycholinguist, and don't
even play one on TV.)

> Some people who are skilled at technical subjects are *not*
> skilled verbally.

Agreed.

I didn't read your original comment, because I find your posts
impenetrable. I'm sorry, but in your posts I can't tell which is
quoted material and which is original material.

I seemed to have distorted what you said by reading only Elaine's
short extract, which is my fault.

> Maybe my original case could be stated better, however:
> Verbal intelligence without a smattering of technical intelligence
> will result in a writer who works better in an environment where
> they format, proof, and edit technical peoples' work rather
> than do direct technical writing.  The best set of types of
> intelligence for a tech writer will include verbal ability
> and technical ability.

I'll agree with that.

Karen
  karenk -at- netcom -dot- com