[Collins] Re: Differences Between the 51J and the R-388

[Glen Zook]

In the late fall of 1967 or winter of 1968 management
decided that all of the salaried employees at the
"new" Collins Radio Company corporate headquarters in
Richardson, Texas, needed to take a week long
"effective writing course".  Basically this course was
supposed to teach everyone how to write
correspondence, manuals, etc., for varying educational
levels.

For example, most newspapers are written for people
with a 6th grade education.  Most general interest
magazines are written for people with an 8th grade
education.  Technical magazines are written for
somewhere between an 8th grade and a 12th grade
education depending on the subject.

What got management started was that someone took
several of the manuals that the Collins Radio Company
was providing to the military and "ran" the "tests"
that supposedly showed what level of education was
necessary to understand them.  At that time it was
"assumed" that the "average" military technician had a
12th grade education or less.  Thus, the manuals
should be written for about an 8th grade education
"just to be sure".

However, when the "tests" were run on the manuals it
was "discovered" that to really understand what was
written that somewhere beyond 2 years post PhD was
necessary!

I don't know if Art Collins personally decided that
everyone needed to take the course or if it was
someone else.  However, it definitely was something
that Art would have come up with.  The course was
interesting, at least to me.  I think that somewhere
up in my attic that I still have the instructional
material that was used in the course.  But, I sure
wouldn't want to have to find it!

Glen, K9STH

--- Gerald <geraldj at ispwest.com> wrote:

I know similarly know there are several different
manuals for each S-line receiver. The one that came
with my new 75S-3B in the spring of 1964 was so badly
written that it often didn't make sense. The next
version was far better. I wrote it. Traded the tech
writer the revisions for a copy of the revised manual.

Glen, K9STH

Web sites

http://home.comcast.net/~k9sth
http://home.comcast.net/~zcomco

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