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 email: [log in to unmask]