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RE: Think outside the box - Re: A suspected can of worms
Subject:RE: Think outside the box - Re: A suspected can of worms From:"Dick Margulis " <margulis -at- mail -dot- fiam -dot- net> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Wed, 25 Jun 2003 15:14:26 -0400
DaLy <swiggles247 -at- yahoo -dot- com> wrote:
>
>------ Mark Baker wrote:
>
>"And the best qualifications for most of those jobs
>are not degrees or diplomas in technical
>communication."
>
>------
>
>Agreed! Following Mark's logic - if a person wants to
>be a Technical Writer he/she should obtain a degree in
>the field he/she wishes to write for.
I don't disagree that an education in a real field of knowledge separate from communications is valuable, but I'm not sure that you are following Mark's logic entirely. And there is a trap in that someone following your advice could end up in a field with declining demand for tech writers.
I think there is something to be said for a generalist approach. My major was math, with a concentration in computer science (too new a field to have its own degree program at the time), and my minors were in English and physics. I think that education prepared me to write about a lot of fields (certainly not all fields) without forcing me to restrict myself to one specific field.
There is a parallel with journalism. Some of the most compelling reporters are people who knew subject matter before they knew journalism. People reporting on legal news (Supreme Court decisions, for example)--people whose names you recognize--mostly have law degrees. People reporting on medical news are often MDs. Science reporters generally have science degrees. Business reporters--the good ones--often have MBAs. The weather forecasters you can stand to listen to are usually people with degrees in meteorology. The broadcasting and/or journalism credits for all these people were on the side, and they were able to master them well enough to do a creditable job either as print or broadcast reporters.
Who are the reporters you do _not_ want to listen to? They're the ones who majored in broadcasting or journalism, or maybe in good hair. They know how to do all the technical stuff, but they are weak on the content and context of the stories they report.
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