From: clin@eng.umd.edu (Charles Lin)
Newsgroups: soc.college.grad
Subject: Re: Any Humanities Grads out there?
Date: 14 Apr 92 21:34:29 GMT
Article-I.D.: eng.1992Apr14.213429.11240
Organization: College of Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park
Originator: clin@pepsi.eng.umd.edu


In article <1992Apr14.180035.12468@blaze.cs.jhu.edu>, callahan@biffvm.cs.jhu.edu (Paul Callahan) writes:
>clin@eng.umd.edu (Charles Lin) writes:
>
>>    Now there are reasons why engineers and the like find it hard to
>>take humanities courses.  One of the main reasons is a lack of
>>strong skills in writing.  The other is a lack of ability to organize.
>>Finally, there could simply be a lack of interest, which I find
>>too bad.   
>
>My big reason is fear of not being graded appropriately.  I admit that there 
>are plenty of objective standards for judging papers in the humanities, and
>I'm willing to assume that most professors make an honest effort to reduce
>their subjectivity as much as possible when grading.  However, when I  
>turn in a paper in a liberal arts course, I lack the personal assurance that
>it is the "right" answer.  
>
>You may say what you will about the relative ease of Shakespeare and Fourier 
>Analysis, but the fact remains that given a moderate question about the latter,
>I am confident that I will be able to get the correct answer if I spend 
>sufficient effort.  Moreover, I am certain that the professor will be
>able to distinguish a correct answer from an incorrect one.  If asked to write
>an essay about Shakespeare, on the other hand, I would lack both of these
>assurances.
>
>In this sense, I find engineering to be *easier* than liberal arts. (Yes,
>easier).
>

   I personally wouldn't use the word easier.  Maybe more certain.  One
advantage and drawback of LA courses is that there is no right answer.
Often, it's how well you argue the point.  I would hope that is the
main judging point, but it sometimes isn't.  My guess is that there
are certain fields that could give rise (just to be specific, something
like women's studies or various ethnic -- American -- studies) to situations
where opinions matter and not how well some opinion is defended.  So,
in a women's studies course, it may not be such a good idea to say
that we ought to increase male subjugation of women.  No matter how
well defended this position might be, the prof. may just decide it's
a wrong opinion and downgrade for that.

   Nevertheless, unless you get into some really abstruse topic,
you could probably BS your way through a paper, and while there
are plenty of creative ways to do that in engineering, it's easier
to catch.

   I guess waht I'm saying is that engineering reasoning (math, sciences)
tends to be less intuitive than reasoning in LA.  And because there are
supposed to be right answers, then you must a lot more sure of your
answer in engineering courses.  But then they give lots of partial credit,
so....

   I will agree that one detraction of LA is that it can be the case that
you are simply trying to satisfy the prof. or grader.  I had some
situation where the prof. liked what I wrote and the TA didn't.  The
TA was a stickler for grammatical details, and the prof. wasn't.
Things like this happen less often in engineering courses, but then
you also get the prof. who has a difficult time explaining difficult concepts
whereas humanities profs. tend to much clearer when they explain ideas.

--
   ______    __    __   ___  ____
  / ____ \  |  |  |__| |   \ |  |    Charles Lin
 | /    \_| |  |   __  |    \|  |    e-mail: clin@eng.umd.edu
 | |        |  |  |  | |  |\    |   
 | |     _  |  |  |__| |__| \___|    University of Maryland
 | \____/ | |  |____                 "I hate big sigs." -- Moo
  \______/  \_______|