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RE: What should be on a technical writing curriculum?
Subject:RE: What should be on a technical writing curriculum? From:bryan -dot- westbrook -at- amd -dot- com To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Mon, 30 Oct 2000 11:18:59 -0600
One of the most useful courses I had to take was a news writing class taught
by the journalism department.
Most classes deal with the actual writing and formatting issues, but this
one focused largely on gathering the information to be disseminated. It
seems that most of my classes steered us towards writing about what we
already knew and, therefore, ignored this much needed skill. The news
writing class also taught us interviewing skills which comes into play all
the time in dealing with SME's.
If you have the resources, classes focusing on different fields (or an
overview course) could be helpful. Perhaps an overview for entry-level
students to help them focus their studies. For example, a class on writing
for the military could teach the students how to read and interpret milspecs
and working in the general formality and rigidity of that field.
Of course, I think the standard industry software (FrameMaker, RoboHelp,
Word, etc.) should be stressed, but perhaps it should be integrated into
other classes rather than on their own.
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Thomas Quine [SMTP:quinet -at- home -dot- com]
> Sent: Monday, October 30, 2000 10:43 AM
> To: TECHWR-L
> Subject: What should be on a technical writing curriculum?
>
> Firstly, what should be the core curriculum? What topics should be covered
> in each of the core courses?
> Secondly, what would be some great optional courses?
>
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