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<Jeanne -dot- Keuma -at- ch2m -dot- com> wrote ...
> In response to the posts about technical writing skills and related
> college degrees, I offer the following. Just IMO.
> Tech comm/tech writing/tech editing degrees should not necessarily
> require "tech" courses in engineering or science.
I could not disagree more emphatically. However, this depends on what kind of
tech comm work a person wants to do.
> I've been writing and
> editing for various industries--software, agriculture, chemistry,
> engineering, construction, childhood development, you name it. Had I
> focused on one "tech" area I may not have been as versatile. With the
> lack of jobs, it has been extremely helpful to be able to pick up and
> learn any "tech" area along the way. The main skills that have been
> paying the bills have been a solid background in writing and editing.
> Or perhaps I've been lucky that my employers and clients have looked for
> "English" degrees and great writing and editing skills, as well as
> proficiency in the many software "tools" they use.
It sounds to me you have basically filled editing and desktop publishing roles.
While some employers hire "tech writers" who perform just editing and desktop
publishing duties, this is not the case with all employers. There are plenty of
employers who want writers with subject-matter knowledge who can generate
content from experience and not merely reformat what other people tell them.
Those employers need people who already have a strong scientific and/or
technical foundation. They aren't willing to teach the tech writers basic
science concepts.
As such, your assertion that technical or scientific training is unnecessary is
only valid if you plan to focus your career mostly on editing and desktop
publishing type of work. If you want to be a writer or an author, then you need
a strong education in more than just English.
I think it is important to clarify this distinction. I believe the technical
communication profession is organized into three main disciplines:
Each of these disciplines has a different set of requirements and skills that
are necessary. Desktop publishing requires strong layout, design, and tool
skills. Editing requires strong English skills. And authoring requires
subject-matter expertise.
Skill in one discipline does not mean skill in the others. People who are great
desktop publishers (a.k.a. tool monkey) are rarely also good writers. People
who are writers often are terrible editors.
Generally, as you progress from desktop publisher, to editor, to writer you get
closer and more "intimate" with the subject matter at each level.
The problem here is that STC and most of the tech writing programs out there,
don't make this distinction of disciplines. As such, they produce tech comm
people who have good editing and desktop publishing skills, but no authoring
skills. As such, the tech comm profession has tons of desktop publishers and
editors all calling themselves writers, when they really aren't qualified to
write about anything other than grammar or tools.
A person who is a writer *MUST* have a deep and profound understanding of the
subject matter. You cannot rightfully call yourself an "author" of anything if
you don't understand what it is you're authoring. Authors do not get on the
New York bestsellers list because they use XML and are team oriented. They get
on the list because they have supreme control over the material they author.
It follows then, that to author documentation about complex technologies or
scientific concepts, the author must have some background in fundamental
concepts of those areas. It would be very hard, for example, to write a
document about a database if you didn't have some basic education in relational
databases. And many employers are not willing to wait for a writer to ramp up
and acquire these basic skills.
Furthermore, engineering and scietific courses offer writers a very important
perspective. Many tech writers suffer from a sort of "intelectual flakiness."
They like the IDEA of writing and expressing themselves, but they aren't very
interested in actually digging into complex ideas and logically explaining
them. Science and engineering teaches writers some important skills, like how
to logically apply theories and ideas to practical purposes.
On the other hand, editing and to an even greater extent desktop publishers
don't need to have as much background with the content. As such, they can pass
with just "English" skills. If a person wanted to just do editing or desktop
publishing work, then the engineering courses wouldn't be as necessary.
It sounds to me that the "versatility" that Jeanne talks about is really a
versatility between two disciplines: desktop publishing and editing. And there
is a sizable job market in that space. However, without a strong science or
technology background, there is a limitation to the types of jobs you can do.
Andrew Plato
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