Re: "The World of Technical Communication and Writing"

[Chris Morton <salt -dot- morton -at- gmail -dot- com>]

"...the programâs broadness and ability to allow students to match it to
their interests really separates it from other areas of study...Technical
communication and writing can allow you to hop between the medical,
business, government, legal, environmental, nonprofit, and computer science
fields, all with the same degree title."

I agree with this. Through my career I've dealt with computer hardware,
operating systems, software apps, international shipping, domestic oil
exploration, computer-aided design, electronic publishing, 3D color
prostate modeling, and Internet security. I work with one water/wastewater
supplier industrial VFDs and PLCs, documenting both. I guess you could say
that if it's at all geeky, let me at it. However, I know I'm not unique
regarding all of the different topics I've written about.

Like some of us, I do all of this without a formal degree, although I was a
briefly a communications major at U of W Madison and later took a
purposeful (and rudimentary) business communications course elsewhere. Like
many of us, our desire to explain technical things in plain English seems
to be more genetic than it is something we were formally taught. That and
serendipity, as I started my career as a radio broadcaster, having never
heard of technical writing as a profession.

And like a number of us, I suspect, I'm an autodidactâa family trait I've
thankfully inherited. For the most part, this cannot be taught. Here, I
liked what Gene wrote about being taught to LEARNâthat's the key.

Back to the post: Anytime I come across a writer citing "Webster's" or some
other authoritative source, it comes off as a Cliff Notes style of
writingâpenned
by a bot, indeed.

(I'm especially put off by references to "Webster's," as no single
publishing concern rightfully owns that generic title. Any one of us could
publish our own Webster's tomorrow. Does such an author mean
Merriam-Webster?)

> Chris

On Thu, Jun 25, 2015 at 2:38 PM, Cardimon, Craig <ccardimon -at- m-s-g -dot- com>
wrote:

>
> http://www.theprospect.net/the-world-of-technical-communication-and-writing-28215
>
> Thoughts?
>
>
>
>
> Cordially,
>
> Craig Cardimon | Senior Technical Writer
> Marketing Systems Group
>
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