MediaWiki talk:Requestaccount-bio-text

People with English as their second language will very often write only for content and let their "internal monitor" stay turned off unless they know that they need to turn on that monitor because they are being assessed for more than mere content.

I thus added "Please note: your biography must demonstrate that you possess high proficiency in English." In this way, applicants are forewarned that they must "turn on" their "internal monitor" when they write their bios.

The reason I have made this change is because I've been really concerned that we have been rejecting contributors who have the ability to write high level English but just do not take the time and effort to do so in this application, because we are not forewarning them that their English is being assessed.

With forewarning, those who have the ability to write in high level English can and will typically do so, because the forewarning signals to them that they must "turn on" their "internal monitor" to make it so and not just write for content.

Stephen Ewen 03:35, 30 January 2008 (CST)

I'm going to push back, only slightly, on this. Persons who do not write their own public bios in careful English, even if they have the ability to write good English (which you correctly observe they might), are probably going to be equally sloppy in writing CZ articles. Why not take a quick poll of other constables and see what they think? I don't need to know the results. I just wanted to say this, I don't care that much. Also, again just to pick nits, I am skeptical of the very notion of "writing for content." Is there any other kind of writing? As someone once said, clear writing is no more or less than clear thinking. --Larry Sanger 08:39, 30 January 2008 (CST)