I found the following posts by different people to a newsgroup:
Re: Engineers and English
Posted by: "
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@yahoo.com
Date: Wed Dec 14, 2011 2:02 pm
Yup. When I was an undergrad business major at Iowa State in the '50s I had a 5th year Electrical Engineer (4 year curriculum) offer me $100 (big money back then) to take the senior English exam for him. It was required of all graduates, and he had flunked it NINE times already. I had to tell him I could not, simply because I was involved with debate and speech competitions, and was known by most of the English faculty by name. But I offered to tutor him. I had him write me the requisite 500 words and was amazed (astounded? flabbergasted?) when he handed me back 500 words in TWO sentences. His work was a blizzard of commas, a forest of semicolons, and was thoroughly muddled. When I finished with him I had separated him from his $100 and he passed the exam by being able to write a 7 word sentence with a capitol letter at the beginning and a period at the end.
.....................................
I've noticed before that many engineers have only a passing acquaintance
> with English Great example:
>
> This test procedure is a breakdown of the tests carried out on the
> device. It does not however bare any relation to the order in which the
> tests are carried out.
>
> Good to know that no uncles or aunts in religious organisations are to be
> rendered naked...
.............................................
My own problem at the moment is similar
My brain appears to have swapped 'There' and 'Their' round recently
I know which is which!
My fingers however, keep typing the other one!!
And it's both ways
How do you spell Alzheimers?
................................................
My Alma Mata has a saying, "Before I went to Georgia Tech, I couldn't
spell Ing-ga-near, now I are one."
Two hundred credit hours of science and engineering, three hours of
English to graduate.
(Despite his training the last author is a writer who seems more than capable of writing good English!)