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Advanced degrees focus on more detail than a B.A. or B.S. degree would. I can't speak for a PhD in technical writing, but in other liberal arts your B.A. would be in French literature (for example), your M.A. would focus on French literature of the 18th century, and your PhD would make you a specialist in the use of serial commas and semicolons in Diderot's Encyclopédie. You're not simpy getting more knowledge, you're getting deeper knowledge about fewer things. I'm guessing that PhD programs in technical writing would ask the student to pick an area of specialty and do a thesis on that, after a certain amount of internship and/or research.
In some disciplines I can see the value of getting a PhD, but in technical writing, if you just want to write, the best training would be as a jack-of-all-trades, learning on the job. If you want to become a consultant specializing in XML, XSLT and database applications, then perhaps a PhD might be useful. OTOH, experience and attendance at all possible XML workshops would accomplish the same thing.
Options: (1) pay someone who tells you to do the work yourself. When you do it, you get recognition and a piece of paper. (2) Get paid while working (and learning). If you do it well (and the economy supports it), you get recognition in the form of higher pay and possibly a promotion.
Anita Legsdin, whose role model is Abe Lincoln.
> -----Original Message-----
> Chuck Martin wrote:
>
> > Technical
> > Writing (Technical Communication, user Assistance Engineering, Information
> > Development, etc.) is an engineering discipline with its own body of
> > research. One person told me years ago that advanced degrees in the
> > discipline (he was getting his Masters) focused more on the
> > theoretical than
> > the "practical" (such as how to use tools or how to edit).
> >
> > But that theory is knowledge. Knowledge that can help you do your job
> > better. Knowledge that can help you do you job faster. Knowledge that can
> > lead to a better return on your company's investment.
>
>
