Actually I wasn't referring to someone on this forum but now you mention it I remember crossing swords over this before. Thanks for admitting it.

Tell you what, if and when I have major heart surgery, I'll be more than happy if the surgeon can't decide whether to spell it as "their" or "there" as long as he knows how to operate and I suspect you'd be the same.
To equate spelling with technical understanding really beggars belief and I seriously expect you are on a wind up here.

It is a function of the scientist, engineer and mathematician to communicate
their ideas clearly without ambiguity. If you cannot you have no place in
these areas of endeavour.

When I interview job candidates one of the major selection criteria after
technical competence is ability to communicate clearly (in fact the former
cannot be demonstrated without the latter).

Of course the standards applied are not those applied to a journalist or
novelist, but they do exist. Also they can be realised (at least to my satisfaction)
by anyone if they make an effort (I am dyslexic myself and can manage clarity
of communication - at least to my satisfaction).

RonL

I wouldn't necessarily disagree with that but I'd hesitate to say that poor communications skills meant you had no place in these areas.

In fact I know this is wrong because I am an engineer myself and have worked with many good people who could neither spell or explain ideas properly. It's very frustrating sometimes but it's obviously not as vital as technical ability as you say.

It's interesting you mention engineering. Engineering (particularly IT) is full of unnecessary jargon which by definition excludes people from understanding it. Used to drive me up the wall.

It depends on who your "audience" is. For example, I could likely bury just about anyone here by talking about Quantum Field Theory in terms of the Physics. And my fiancee speaks "doctor." I recently heard a conversation between her and her doctor where the words were perfectly clear, but I had no understanding of what they were saying.

No, a surgeon doesn't need to know spelling or correct grammar to succesfully operate on a patient. But I'll bet he/she had to know it in order to learn the procedure in the first place. I understand that you feel grading language skills in, say, the Physical Sciences is unfair. Frankly a lot of students do. I also know that I'm not likely to convince you otherwise, so I'm not going to try any more. All the relevant points have already been made. Just tuck this conversation in your memory somewhere. You may change your mind about it when you get further on in your career.

-Dan

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"I must not fear. Fear is the mind killer. Fear is the little death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain." - The Litany Against Fear, "Dune" by Frank Herbert

Bury or bore?

Cheeky sod. I'm older than you are young man.
By the way, I don't have a "career"; I run my own business.
(Hope you appreciate the correct use of a semi-colon there :-)).

Who is to say it's unnecessary?

RonL

I guess the only way to answer this is to start with a definition of unnecessary.

Jargon is unnecessary if the thing being described can be easily and effiiciently described in layman's terms.

Firstly, I can't claim any sort of authority on this unless I explain my credentials. This is usually not something I like doing because it's usually done to show off and that is something I can't stand. Unfortunately, I need to explain WHY I am qualified to make any sort of judgment on this.
I have solid Engineering Honours degree from 20 years ago and I am currently going back over some of my maths hence I am on this site for some info from time to time.
I have over 16 years of commercial engineering experience most of which has been as a Software Designer. My employee/client list has included some of the biggest and most prestigious companies in the world including the world renowned IBM Research Facility in England and Motorola. As well as being involved in Software Design (mostly embedded software) I have had technical authority over other designers in both companies listed above.
I have also ran my own recruitment firm and have interviewed and recruited engineers.
I also spent a few years Freelancing to earn more money.

OK so when it comes to having an opinion on software and IT in particular I believe I am speaking from some professional and commercial experience rather than as a 19 year old "read a book and think I know it all" weekend hobbyist.

Jargon in both fields is sometimes necessary and sometimes it has been introduced deliberately to block others from accessing the knowledge. This is regularly done to:-

1)Boost the image of the person doing it because they look like experts to the untrained eye.

2)Boost their job security by making them look irreplaceable.

Part of what I used to do was identify such people and weed them out. My "kill list" on this is pretty depressingly impressive.

For some proof of this, have a dispassionate look at some of the words and phrases used in IT.
How many of them seem "Sexed up"?
I use the expression "Trekkied up" sometimes to mean the same thing because it amply illustrates the common (but not exclusive) type of person who works in that field.

For final proof, simply find a decent engineer and actually ask him yourself. A decent engineer is a decent engineer and doesn't need jargon to confuse others.

Hope that explains my point.

Why not give us some examples?

RonL

I like how the topic went sideways

Anyways i'm still in hs, and want to be prepared. Could somone expand on what kind of calculations.

Multiplication and division are critical (and unmastered by US HS students in general). Soling linear equations, solving quadratic equations, and graphing linear and quadratic functions are up there as well. Not to mention knowing the values of trig functions for angles 0, 30, 45, 60, and 90 degrees.

That's a condensed list, but I'd be happy to see the Freshman college student who can do all of those enter my College Algebra or Physics I classroom on the first day.

-Dan

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"I must not fear. Fear is the mind killer. Fear is the little death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain." - The Litany Against Fear, "Dune" by Frank Herbert