> General writing and technical communication skills are a must Perhaps that is what he is trying to get at? I am sure my communication skills are poor, but I

> General writing and technical communication skills are a must Perhaps that is what he is trying to get at? I am sure my communication skills are poor, but I found utility in using these tools a year or so ago. Whatever gibberish I was able to give it often produced a good result. These days I can't seem to get anything usable out of them. It does seem, like the parent suggests, that they have gotten worse. It may very well be that said tools are no worse, if even better, where communication ability is stronger. However, if we have chosen to optimize these systems for those who are great at communicating, at the cost of those who are not, that doesn't help with the topic at hand. The non-software engineers – implying Average Joe – are almost certainly not going to be great technical writers.