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Who would define "competency"? |
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A philosophical question if taken seriously, but it probably won't be, in view of the narrow-minded pomposity of some academics and the near exhaustion of others. (If we all faced the fact that anyone can and should get proofreading help from a friend or teacher or editor--as professional writers do--or from a machine, the whole question of competency would be seen in a clearer light: not "mechanics," but meaning plus proofreading.) What defines "competency" for a person who struggles to write neat, bland essays compared to someone who can think, and who says a good deal in a powerful way, but doesn't know some of the conventions of punctuation? Most college students have elements of both extremes, anyway; and this debate among English teachers is endless, from generation to generation. Having seen that pendulum swing back and forth, I know it won't be one that interests me for this paper, because it leads to dead ends.
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