Re: Liberal Arts Grads .. Button Pushed, Ready, Aim.....REALLY LO NG

[Julie Tholen <julie_tholen -at- CNT -dot- COM>]

(Ooohh! There goes that button being pushed again-small tirade to
follow)

I don't know how this thread got started or by whom, so please delete
now if this is not of interest to you.

As the proud holder of a B.A. in Political Science, a certificate in
programming, a M.S. in Special Studies (which included psychology,
sociology, instructional design, various English courses, statistics and
computer science coursework) I feel overly qualified to address this
issue.

My liberal arts background has provided me with a tremendous tool kit
with which to perform the tasks assigned to the TW. At a tender age when
I was studying Poli Sci, I was in reality learning how to research,
organize, synthesize and format information for a variety of audiences.
The only primary skill that I held on to from the certification program
(besides the certain knowledge that coding was for anyone but me!) was
how to create a flow process and the rudimentary skills of what we know
refer to as concept mapping.  My graduate work helped to sharpen my
skills and introduced me to instructional design and the concept of JAD,
and team development.

[Part of my thesis work involved looking at the impact of collaboration
upon computer documentation. I spent HOURS talking to students (teams of
English and CS students) about, and analyzing the results of their
documentation efforts. Guess what? The English students grasped the CS
concepts being presented better than CS students grasped the writing
concepts.]

My liberal arts background has never stood in my way.  My first job out
of grad school was doing stand-up delivery of proprietary software. We
created our own curriculum and were responsible for learning the whole
system from the Order Entry module to Inventory/Purchasing to
Accounting.

The next position, as a straight technical writer, was to document a
software module for computer technology that I had never even heard of.
It went fine.

Currently, I do documentation on several projects - on guess what?- a
totally different set of technology! And the moral to this story is...a
well rounded liberal arts background prepares you for life, helps you to
be adaptable and provides the skills necessary to get the job done. Why?
It helps to develop you as a life long learner and that is the bottom
line of survival of this business world.

Whee! I feel so much better!

Julie T.
> >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
        ... while pure liberal arts folks tend not to fully
> grasp what they are talking about. That's not intended as an
> insult...it just
> reflects a lack of training in a certain area. Many, many writers
> without much technical training often "just don't get" what they're
> writing
> about, and it takes a techie to catch such errors.- right, sure - most
> of the time the projects are so huge that no one person knows it all,
> so guess what? Even the techiest of techies has to consult with their
> colleagues.
> >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>
>
>

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