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Subject:Re: How old is the profession? From:Joel Turnipseed <JTurnipseed -at- DATAWORKSMPLS -dot- COM> Date:Tue, 28 Apr 1998 09:50:24 -0500
During a recent archaeological exploration of the farther reaches of the
caves at Lascaux, Ben Diggin, Professor of Archaic Technical Writing at
Montana A & M, uncovered the rudiments of the world's first technical
manual. Several thousand feet beyond the famous image of the fallen
hunter and bull, Professor Diggin uncovered several splotches of blood,
ochre, berry extract and snot configured in a earth-tone color wheel. On
the opposing wall he was surprised to find scratchings arranged in a
seemingly haphazard manner, but then removed some lichen to find a
fully-rendered stick figure: what had heretofor seemed like random lines
actually amounted to a primer of stick-man anatomy. Professor Diggin's
discoveries will need to undergo further peer review before being
published in the Proceedings of the Warburg Institute's Journal of
Archaic Technology. Says Diggin, "I think that we can definitely call
Technical Writing the world's second oldest profession."
-----Original Message-----
From: Carol Hoeniges [mailto:ttchoeniges -at- EARTHLINK -dot- NET]
Sent: Tuesday, April 28, 1998 9:24 AM
To: TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU
Subject: Re: How old is the profession?
Teresa Kynell has written a thorough historical account of tech writing
in
"Writing in a Milieu of Utility: The Move to Technical Communication in
American Engineering Programs." She studies our emerging profession from
the early 1900's (as the growth of tech writing relates to engineering).
Also, Elizabeth Tebeaux has done extensive research on tech writing in
the
Renaissance. I remember conversation with one of my graduate professors
that there is also study/speculation of the profession going back even
farther than that, into the days of Roman Empire and Aristotle. Keeping
track of the various names and applications of the profession's history
seems to part of the challenge.
Carol Hoeniges
The Training Connection
309.454.2218 voice
309.454.8448 fax
ttchoeniges -at- earthlink -dot- net
