Re: On the Fence/Writing for Journals
This hardly compares with technical writing and the STC magazines. First,
there are no "centers of documentation study" that I know of. Most
technical writing programs in schools are masters level programs at most.
Second, technical communication hardly qualifies as a "scientific"
endeavor.
My view of the STC tallies closely with Andrew's. However, in the interests of fairness, I'd like to point out:
- Many aspects of technical writing are studied under different names at universities. At Simon Fraser University, where I was on contract for a number of years, the name was "rhetoric."
- Such studies(whatever their name)aren't hard science. However, they deserve to be described as scientific as much or as little as any social science does. What makes them scientific is that they attempt to study their subjects systematically and empirically. Of course, the complexities of the subject matter mean that most of the attempts fail, and that their methodologies deserve serious criticism, but they could still be called scientific in the broadest sense.
These studies, of course, are very different from the commercial, work-oriented articles that they appear beside in technical writing publications. Despite their faults, I'd consider them the high-end of the spectrum of articles in these publications. By that I mean that they come closest to the academic dialogue that universities are supposed to value.
(To be honest, I'm not at all sure that technical communication should be taught at universities, any more than business administration should. Such topics fit better into technical training colleges. There's already too little pure research happening at universities without diluting it any further, and I worry about losing the serendipity of unapplied science).
--
Bruce Byfield 604.421.7177 bbyfield -at- axionet -dot- com
Prince, I can hear the trumpet of Germinal,
The tumbrils toiling up the terrible way;
Even to-day your royal head may fall,
I think I will not hang myself to-day.
-G. K. Chesterton, "A Ballade of Suicide"
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