Writing assignment 1

One possibel disadvantage of focusing on science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education rather than language arts is that engineers might end up lacking language skills, and thus facing problems in publishing their ideas. For example, Michael Faraday discovered the Law of Electromagnetic Induction as early as the 1830s (Anonymous, 2008, para. 16-17). However, the world only got to know his great idea some 30 years later. Why? Faraday did not spend these years polishing his work; instead, he struggled to get it published, because he was very bad in writing. He treid to make others understand his great work, but his writing only made his ideas more confusing. Though he finally managed to find someone who could understand his broken language, it was really a waste of time for a scientist as brilliant as Faraday--he could have used the time to do more significant studies. In contrast, Stephen Hawking shows how good language skills can help to convey knowledge to the public. A Brief History of Time is undoutedly one of the most outstanding po;ular science books so far. As Hawking himself had said:"The aim is to put it in a form that's understandable" (Anonymous, 2001, para. 8). Indeed, he made his complex ideas clear by explaining abstract physics concepts in a way that even laymen can understand. Not only did good language skills help Hawking make himself understood, but they also help to give every reader a beneficial science lesson. Comparing the two examples, it is easy to conclude that language skills are very important to a scientific worker. Similarly, we can suppose it is the sme case with an engineer. Lacing language skills can be an obstacle in an engineer's work. It is also an unavoidabel disadvantage of focusing on STEM education to the detriment of language arts.

References

Anonymous, Michael Faraday. (2008). Retrieved September 2, 2008 from

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faraday

Anonymous, Hawking's briefer history of time. (2001). Retrieved September 2, 2008 from

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/1599719.stm