RE: PHD in Tech writing

["Mark Baker" <mbaker -at- ca -dot- stilo -dot- com>]

> Actually, many hitters, as well as most hitting instructors, have done at
> elast some study of physics.


Yep. That's why every kid who wants to makes the major leagues starts out by
taking a Doctoral Degree in physics.

> Physics also demonstrates why it is better to hit the cutoff man froom the
> outfield than to try and make a throw to home from deep. This is not
> intuitive.

Yes. But understanding why it is so is not necessary to playing the game.
All that is necessary is to discover that it is so.

> It's not just communication that is learned. Among the topics in graduate
> study in the field: information design, learning theory, various types of
> psychology and physiology, etc. Advanced degrees are not about writing
> skills.

No, they are not. And they do nothing to improve writing skills.

> Remember, too, the discipline is not about just writing. Everything
> communicates. As a technical communicator, you're responsible, in
> part, for
> how the product you're documenting inherently communicates its
> function. Do
> that well (or learn how to do it well), and you'll be doing less actual
> writing.

But the problem is again the same. The critical faculty is valuable and
worthy of study and development. But the critical faculty is not the
creative faculty and the development of the critical faculty is not the
development of the creative faculty. Life would be much easier if it were,
because then we could reliable train people to be creative. But we can't.
All we can do is educate them and let them go out into the world, hoping for
the best.

I didn't say that it was wrong to study technical communication at a PhD
level. There is probably enough material in there for a thesis or two. But
it no part of how you should train a technical writer. In fact, you probably
shouldn't train technical writers at all, except perhaps by apprenticeship.
You should educate people and hire educated people to do jobs that require
creativity and imagination.

---
Mark Baker
Stilo Corporation
1900 City Park Drive, Suite 504 , Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, K1J 1A3
Phone: 613-745-4242, Fax: 613-745-5560
Email mbaker -at- ca -dot- stilo -dot- com
Web: http://www.stilo.com

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