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Re: technical writer degree programs

Subject: Re: technical writer degree programs
From: "Jeanne A. E. DeVoto" <jaed -at- jaedworks -dot- com>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Wed, 3 Sep 2003 23:46:22 -0700

At 10:09 PM -0600 9/2/2003, Janice Henning wrote:
[Janice has worked as a tech writer for several years. Her company
is willing to pay for her four-year degree, but no college in her
area offers a technical writing program; however, there is a program
available in technical journalism.]

Would I be better off in my field if I were to get a bachelor's
degree in English?

If your priority in choosing a program is improving prospects for future advancement, neither the technical journalism degree nor the English degree seem like the best choice to me. (Either degree is valuable inasmuch as it provides a lot of writing experience, but you've already been a professional technical writer for some years, so presumably you've done a lot of writing already.)

Does any college in your area offer an ad-hoc/design-your-own-major option? Depending on the available departments and classes, you might be able to put together a very good technical-communications degree from available courses in CS, commercial art, and cognitive psych. You might try calling the admissions department and asking whether they can recommend a professor who might be able to advise you; it's entirely possible that there's one with a particular interest in this sort of program.

If such a program isn't available anywhere handy, my feeling is that a CS or other technical degree will give you significantly better opportunities for advancement than an English or tech-journalism degree.
--
--
jeanne a. e. devoto ~ jaed -at- jaedworks -dot- com
http://www.jaedworks.com



References:
technical writer degree programs: From: Janice Henning

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