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Subject:Re: Answer: TW and grad school From:Damien Braniff <Damien_Braniff -at- PAC -dot- CO -dot- UK> Date:Mon, 9 Feb 1998 09:17:54 +0000
Hi Cherie,
I think degrees have varying value depending on the hirer, situation etc.
In the UK, until recently, there weren't ANY degree courses in tech writing
and for most it was a second career. The majority of writers had either a
degree in a relevant subject (e.g. electronics) or had been through some
form of apprenticeship with their writing usually directly related to their
"speciality".
When I started there were 18 software authors documenting a large comms
package from the source code. Of those, only three of us had any direct
contact with programming via a relevant degree - the others picked it up as
they went along. As is often the case, the relevance of the degree was
more to show that you could study and learn than the actual content of the
degree. If you seem to have an aptitude, enthuiasm etc then you have a
good chance of being taken on. As to the relevance to TW degrees, it may
simply come down to the fact that you have less to learn and so should be
productive quicker.
