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Subject:techwr job stats & curriculum From:John -dot- Cornellier -at- PARIS -dot- IE -dot- PHILIPS -dot- COM Date:Tue, 3 Jun 1997 18:21:10 +0200
Dear all,
I'm working on a curriculum for a techwr course. You might find the results of
some research I did interesting. Or not. Anyhow, I'd welcome all comments,
opions, rants, raves, facts, etc.
The objective (invented by me) of the course is to: establish graduates as
technical writing professionals, and to equip them for continuing success in
their technical writing careers.
Seems like the thing is to teach students what they need to know to get a job. I
looked at the last 100 or so jobs posted on TECHWR-L & found skills mentioned
with _roughly_ the following frequency (number of mentions per 100 ads, not
number of ads with mentions):
Windows 70
Online help 64
FrameMaker 60
MS Word 54
HTML 35
RoboHELP 31
UNIX 22
C++ / Java 17
graphics skills 14
project management 10
Interleaf 07
PageMaker 07
MAC 05
(Please note that this is by no means scientific; all I did was query word
freqency.)
Brief curriculum outline (4 main areas)
Basic computer skills:
Windows 3.11/95/NT
OO concepts: C++, and Java
UNIX/DOS
Production:
Frame, Word & RoboHELP
project management
DTP & graphics skills
HTML
Writing:
gathering & verifying information
writing instructions and procedures
developing a strong and concise style
writing for online
Career development:
the role of the tech writer within a company
finding work
resources for technical writers
Kind regards,
John -dot- Cornellier -at- paris -dot- ie -dot- philips -dot- com
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