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In the CFH Bulletin for the Spring of 1992 (15.1) there is a review of
the work of Alain Etchegoyen, a philosopher, business executive,
consultant, and writer.  John Thorp describes how Etchegoyen has written
case studies of successful French corporations and humanistically-trained
people who run these ventures.  Etchegoyen shows how "the exercise of the
dissertation or formal essay ... is an excellent instrument for training
in precision of expression, rigour of thought, analysis and
abstraction....it has a distinct advantage over its analogues in
scientific education as preparation for business, namely that there is no
single right answer to the problem that is set, nor any single correct
way to achieve that answer.... the same creativity belongs to the
activities of business management.  Making a good business decision,
Etchegoyen argues, is more like writing a good dissertation than like
solving a hard problem in calculus or trigonometry.  He writes that 'the
literary exercise of the formal essay is, so to speak, a metaphor of the
activities of business.'   Here is more evidence to support the practical
benefits of English essay writing for the business professional.

Glenn Deer:  DEPT. OF ENGLISH, The University of British Columbia
             #397 - 1873 East Mall, Vancouver, B.C. V6T 1Z1
             Tel: (604) 822-5122  Fax: (604) 822-6906
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