Re: A question about education

["Jane Bergen" <jane -dot- bergen -at- usa -dot- net>]

Hi, Tracey,

Welcome to the list and welcome to the profession. I think you'll find
that the question you asked inevitably leads to a holy war on this
list, but that's okay. List members need to chill out.

As to your question, everyone (I am including myself here since I have
an M.A. in technical writing) will have their own strongly-biased
opinion. But from my experience after years of working with all types
of writers, I can say that *generally* the writers with a technical
writing education are better writers and do more to further technical
communication as a profession. Of course, there are
exceptions...plenty of them....but that's the generalization.

Now, depending upon where you live (I'm in the Dallas, Texas, USA
area), junior colleges or community colleges may offer certificate
programs in technical writing. At that level, they tend to be more
tools-oriented (for example, courses are titled "Using FrameMaker" or
"Writing Online Help with RoboHelp"). Courses in the undergraduate
programs (four-year degrees) at universities are very broad-based
(lots of universities have their course catalogs online...check them
out) and focused on the rhetorical aspects of technical writing. They
assume that the students will choose minors for the type of writing
the students want to do: pre-med for medical writing, computer science
for software/hardware writing, environmental sciences for
environmental writing, and so on. (Some people on this list forget
that software documentation is NOT the only kind of technical writing)
The graduate programs add lots of communication theory, learning
theory, psychology, and other types of theory courses.

So, to answer your question....it depends! If you like school and like
studying, try taking some courses. You have nothing to lose but a
little time and money. If you already know you don't like school, you
already have a technical writing job that affords you opportunities to
learn, and you are eager to go to conferences, seminars, or workshops
to further your education, then maybe the academic route is not for
you.

A degree has helped me get jobs by opening doors...it has never, by
itself, helped me keep a job. That's my responsibility. Increasingly,
companies are requiring degrees in the high-tech field, but not
necessarily Technical Writing degrees. If I had it to do over again,
I'd probably have majored in computer science as an undergraduate,
with a technical writing minor, but I would still stick to a graduate
degree in technical writing). If you like rigorous academics, go for
it.

You'll find plenty of information online by using any of the major
search engines (www.google.com is my favorite). You can use key words
like "technical writing" AND "course" or something similar. Also check
the tech writer forum web site (the address appears at the end of
every message posted on this list). My own web site lists a couple of
places, though I think I haven't updated it in over a year...lazy me!)

Hope that helps,

Jane Bergen
jane -dot- bergen -at- usa -dot- net
http://home.earthlink.net/~jbergen1/


----- Original Message -----
From: "Tracey Claybon" <tclaybon -at- earthlink -dot- net>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Sent: Saturday, December 16, 2000 9:37 AM
Subject: A question about education


Hi, I'm Tracey Claybon, and I am both new to the list and a relatively
new
technical writer.  Currently TW is a sideline to my job as technical
support
for a ISP, but I am hoping to break into a job as a beginning TW
sometime in
the next month in my company.

I wanted to know if anyone had advice on whether it was better to
"transition" into TW via experience and catch as catch can, or to get
a
community college certificate, or go to college in TW?

If the best route is college, where would I find a list of the best
schools?



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