Re: Tech Writing Curriculum
I think that curricula should coverIdeally, things would be the way you describe, but, practically speaking, they probably never will be.
the dominant tools in the market at the time, possibly rotating as the tools
change. It would help me at job hunting time to know that I have a current
skill on my resume, rather than surface knowledge of several different tools
garnered from non-class sources. Plus, I would like to have expert
instruction rather than feeling my way around in the dark (as I am currently
doing).
First, it's very hard to anticipate what tools will be applicable when students graduate. If students are in a two year certificate course, decisions about what to teach them can be made up to three years before they graduate. Under these circumstances, how can anyone plan a course and hope that it will be relevant? To give an example, planning a curriculum in 1990 for a program starting in 1991, it might have seemed a good idea to teach WordPerfect - yet, by 1993, when the students graduated, WordPerfect had lost its dominance to MS Word. Similarly, planning in 1994, who would have realized that Acrobat would be so important in 1996? True, MS Word and FrameMaker seem safe bets for stilll being around in three years' time, but what if more anti-trust actions or a customer revolt over MS licensing dethrones MS Word? What if Adobe dumps FrameMaker, as people on the Framer's list worry about every six months or so?
Second, tools can take up a lot of class time. Many software programs, such as PhotoShop or FrameMaker, have so many features that a semester-long class would be necessary to make someone an intermediate user . In fact, tool courses could very easily take over the curriculum. Yet, with so many other useful and necessary subjects, they really can't be allowed to. And since tools are probably the easiest part of the job to pick up on your own, maybe they shouldn't get much emphasis.
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Bruce Byfield 604.421.7177 bbyfield -at- axionet -dot- com
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When our tires bite the gravel and travelling's through
Somewhere ahead there'll be clean sheets and linen
Somewhere ahead there's rest and there's you."
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