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This topic comes up seemingly every other month on this list ... so perhaps
apologies to those that have read my views before.
I have in this case the advantage of receiving list posts in digest form and
can thereby note that it seems to me that possibly the most valuable words
in today's digest on this topic are labeled "Ethics: Charge for mandatory
lunch event."
Why? Well, sure it's about tools and styles, but mostly it's about people.
List member Glenn Maxey talks to me when he offers "it was more important to
teach the concepts." And, yes, there are some in tech writing with
scientific or engineering backgrounds, but since this is about curriculum it
can be useful to assume most of those taking the curriculum don't. The
challenge, then, is to learn about the kind of folks that will be the
writers' coworkers and customers, i.e. scientists, engineers, programmers.
An equal challenge is to learn about the other customer base, i.e. the users
of the product for which writers write instructions. Finally, it wouldn't
hurt either to learn some marketing--salesmanship--because that's what tech
writing is to your students' future employers.
My curriculum suggestions, then, would be based on the principle or basic
"concept" that students will best learn tech writing not in a cloistered,
exclusive environment, but rather via cooperation with other departments at
the institution. Have joint classes with the engineering department in
order to gain simulated experience with technical project management and in
working with this portion of your students' future customer base to learn
how they work and behave. Have joint classes with the education department
and the psychology department to study how individuals learn and comprehend
instruction. Work with the art department because clearly (groan) "a
picture is worth a thousand words" and if your students are lucky their
future teams will have good technical illustrators on board. Finally, have
a marketing class in the business school--the tech writer could be directly
involved in advertising copy, but in any event manuals, online help, etc.
will be surely seen as reflective of the students' future employers' image
and the writers shouldn't be surprised by that.
Each of these suggestions have been the subject of recurring threads on this
list. So are tools discussions. And occasionally the list veers from
customer focus to "me," so possibly the curriculum could cover resume
writing and running one's own business, too. (!) It wouldn't actually be a
bad idea, though, to make a list of frequently occurring threads on this
list and consider that a starter outline for tech writing curriculum
development.
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