Regarding requirements elicitation, a former student who is working as a software developer, agreed to share this portion of an e-mail that he sent to me (2/22/12):

"You were right, clients do NOT know how to write the documents they give AND they do NOT proof read ANYTHING lol. You said, as a programmer, we will learn these hardships (you said that in Software Engineering) and right you were. Heh, just thought you would like to know that i have learned the truth behind that statement." -- Robert Stoll