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I figured someone else would suggest this, but looks like I'll have to. I
agree that tech writing isn't a good fit for an English department, but I
also see mismatches with communications, engineering, or science
departments. And with due respect to those in TW departments, I think
setting up an independent department is a waste of money. The proper place
for TW is in journalism schools.
Basic journalism classes teach:
--Researching skills
--Interviewing skills, including how to hound an SME
--How to structure a document
--Proper tool use for at least one word processor (if you don't use it
right, editors yell at you)
--Concision and logical flow
--Speed
--Handling deadline pressure
I'm prejudiced, being a j-school grad, but I've known more successful and
contented ex-journalists in our field than people from other backgrounds.
Two of the major themes of this wonderful mail list, info gathering and
dealing with deadline pressure, are second nature to people who've served in
newsrooms. The discipline is already vocational, so there's no conflict
there. So I say run those baby TWs through the basic j-school classes, make
'em take science and engineering electives, teach a couple of high-level TW
specialty courses, and they're good to go.
And of course, if they graduate into an economy like this one, they can
always find a $400-a-week newspaper job to add to their food service
opportunities. ;-)
Jim
Jim Morgan
Technical Communications Mgr.
PortalPlayer, Inc.
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