Re: You Cannot Graciously Accept
 

I think this is why many successful teams in FIRST have found that developing skill sets in many areas help them. If you are trying to present your design concept to your team or to your boss, you must use language to communicate. The better the communication, the better you can convey the concept. If there is a problem with the robot, clear concise language can used to express what is to be determined or needed. Each time the alliances are formed on the field of a FIRST competition, this presents an opportunity for each team representative to put their best foot forward and to have some fun with it. The acceptance competition provides an incentive to be creative and to shine. It's very cool.

Re: You Cannot Graciously Accept
 

Brief Aside:
Communication skills are CRITICAL for engineers. If you cannot communicate an idea effectively, the idea is worthless. If you cannot be persuasive and effectively argue for your ideas virtues, it may be overlooked.

I find it unacceptable for engineers to pull the "I'm an engineer, I don't need to know how to speak" card. I know many engineers, but I've yet to meet one who hasn't had to communicate effectively.

It is interesting to note, FIRST has a number of awards which center on effective communication. Hmmm...

-John

Re: You Cannot Graciously Accept
 

I personally would like to never hear "team XXXX graciously accepts" again.

There are so many possible things you can say, why repeat that?

Re: You Cannot Graciously Accept
 

I agree with Jane.

While Molten's observation that university engineering curricula are light on language skills and very heavy on math is correct, the conclusion that engineers don't require the ability to communicate well is unsound. Those engineers whose ideas find widespread application, those engineers who rise to positions of responsibility, and those engineers who inspire others to pursue their profession are the ones who speak and write exceptionally well.

Re: You Cannot Graciously Accept
 

My point is simply, that there are many things that are much more important then proper grammar. As long as I am able to get my point acrossed, does it matter if I do so with a run-on sentence? I think not.

Re: You Cannot Graciously Accept
 

Careful with that "function over form" idea...that will get you into trouble sometimes. If it's just plain ugly you would be hard-pressed to convince people to adopt it. Examples are found everywhere from human-created music vs computer-generated music, to food made by brilliant chefs, to bridges...

..to the roll-cage on the back of our bot. I needed it to be square with 1" aluminum so we could bolt supports and mounts to it -- yet it wasn't "pretty" so the lead cut the welds and made us bend 1/2" aluminum to which we couldn't mount anything. It's been a "challenge" to overcome this, but I see why it's needed. It's definitely prettier, and image has alot to do with the success of our team in our community (regardless of how we do at competition).

Sometimes even a scientific sentence really DOES NOT MAKE SENSE with the wrong grammar.

============

Diction on the other hand is for politicians and SAT prep courses, IMO. How are engineers supposed to say anything "professional" without a dictionary by our sides when we're put under the spotlight unless our brains really are that wrinkled* with knowledge? It's difficult to determine that the root word "grace" also technically implies humility when the words "gracious professionalism" are used in so many contexts in FIRST. I completely understand why students use "We graciously accept [your alliance partnership]" due to this, even though it technically implies "we are humbled by the fact that you are a higher seed".

At the end of the day though, does the phrase "Team XXXX graciously accepts" really matter?

*Note, "wrinkled" is used here because as I understand it, the brain creates a fold every time it gains a permanent memory. This does not directly imply age even though knowledge often comes with age...unless you're one of those genious-types, which I am not.

Re: You Cannot Graciously Accept
 

At GLR this year, a Trekkie on one of the teams responded with...

"Team XXXX will willlingly be assimilated into your collective."

The sad part was I was the only one in the stands who thought it was funny.

Re: You Cannot Graciously Accept
 

My last year as a student I was the alliance captain and we were the #3 alliance. The #2 alliance was our nearby friends 847 and they picked us, having never said anything I just hugged the 847 team member and Mark Leon said "Well I guess thats a yes." I probably made the team member feel a bit awkward, but I thought it was a nice way to accept the offer.

Re: You Cannot Graciously Accept
 

Someone said this at the NYC regional.

I also heard "graciouslly accept".

My favorite though was from rookie team 2344 when we chose them for our alliance.
"yes"

Re: You Cannot Graciously Accept
 

I'd just like it better if the teams actually stuck to saying "Team XXXX would like to request the assistance..." not "Team XXXX; <FULL BLOWN SPONSOR LIST> and <school associated with team> would like to...."

It makes alliance selections take so much longer than they actually need to, especially for teams with like 20 sponsors. Their logos are (in most cases) on your robot/cart/team shirt. We don't really need to hear them all named every time you refer to your team.

Re: You Cannot Graciously Accept
 

I wonder if we were the only team to say "Team xxxx graciously accepts." instead our president of 2344 was just like "YES!".

Re: You Cannot Graciously Accept
 

When I said that I could actually sense a wave of not understanding pass over the crowd. Very sad indeed.

Anyone remember the mountain dew acceptance at IRI last year. That was me too. Not sure it'd be appreciated at official events though.

Re: You Cannot Graciously Accept
 

Tribbles, maybe?
nah - they're messy and don't stay put.
For truth.

Re: You Cannot Graciously Accept
 

For the right donation, I'd have a team captain recite the New York City phone book.

Re: You Cannot Graciously Accept
 

team xxxx graciously sponsored by (full sponsors list), would like to graciously accept the invatation graciously given by team xxxx, graciously sponsored by (full sponsor list), and team xxxx graciously sponsored by (full sponsor list).