Second Oldest Profession?

[Beth Agnew <bagnew -at- INSYSTEMS -dot- COM>]

I just *hate* to drag all you folks away from the, um, lively, discussion about degrees, but I want to pick up a point that was mentioned a couple of times, namely that Technical Writing (Technical Communication, Information Design, etc.) is a "very young profession". Someone said there'd only been degree programs for about 13-14 years in the discipline.

I've been writing technical information since 1971, myself, and I KNOW that there were instruction sheets, operator's manuals, how-to guides and so on long before that.

So, how far back do you think we go as technical writers? Maybe we weren't acknowledged as a "profession" until relatively recently, but surely we've been scribbling away in the background for many centuries.

I'd like your input on the Technical Writer inHistory.

I submit, that when Gutenberg finally worked the bugs out of that press, he had SOMEONE jot notes about which part went where, and exactly how to lay the ink and the paper down so that the words turned out right side up afterwards.

Your turn...

Beth Agnew
Senior Technical Writer, InSystems Technologies Inc.
bagnew -at- insystems -dot- com            Tel: (905) 513-1400 ext. 280
                        Fax: (905) 513-1419
        Visit us at: http://www.insystems.com

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