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> I just read a few emails on this topic and would like to know and
> understand
> why a person would take a PhD in this field.
One of the simplest reasons that people take advanced degrees in
professional areas (or even in general areas) is because they are waiting
for the job market to recover. I can't find a job right now, the logic goes,
so I will stay in/go back to school and get another degree. Not a bad idea
in itself, but taking a PhD in technical Writing certainly wouldn't be a
course I would recommend.
Education always seems to lag the job market. I was a victim of the teacher
training boom of the late 70's. There were lots of teaching jobs going
unfilled because too few teachers had been trained. Teacher training
departments expanded and recruited madly. Of course, they rapidly created an
oversupply of teachers. When I graduated in 82, 3 people, out of a
graduating class of 60 or so, found jobs. Eventually enrolment dropped and
the education programs were scaled back, but not before creating a glut of
unemployed teachers.
We now have an enormous oversupply of technical writers, with the schools
apparently continuing to turn out more. Many people, no doubt hoping for a
turn around, will doubtless decide to take advanced degrees, and the
universities will do everything they can to encourage them.
The turn around is unlikely to happen, of course, for all the reasons that
have been discussed here over the past few months. My position on tech
writing programs has always been that while they may have some value, taking
a traditional academic degree is always a better use of your time. That is
more true now than it ever was. Educated people are far better equipped to
adapt and prosper in a changing world.
---
Mark Baker
Stilo Corporation
1900 City Park Drive, Suite 504 , Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, K1J 1A3
Phone: 613-745-4242, Fax: 613-745-5560
Email mbaker -at- ca -dot- stilo -dot- com
Web: http://www.stilo.com
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