Re: PHD in Tech writing

[Beth Agnew <Beth -dot- Agnew -at- senecac -dot- on -dot- ca>]

Well, of course that is just your opinion. Knowing the "why" behind what 
you're doing with the material is indeed valuable and should not be so 
quickly dismissed. We have numerous examples of people who knew content 
but not technique -- that's why we moved away from SMEs (computer 
engineers, for example) writing technical documentation in the first 
place. Although they had initmate in-depth knowledge of the subject 
matter, they did not know how to deliver that information in readable 
fashion. Hence the pervasisve belief that "technical documentation is 
hard to understand".

I persist in stating that technical communication is not a one/zero 
black/white profession where you must be X or you cannot succeed. What a 
narrow, uninspiring, meager business that would be!

--Beth