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Subject:Re: How old is the profession? From:Mark Baker <mbaker -at- OMNIMARK -dot- COM> Date:Tue, 28 Apr 1998 11:15:28 -0400
Carol Hoeniges wrote
>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.
Speculation? We have lots of technical tracts from that period and from far
earlier. The question is not, how recent is technical writing, but, is there
any form of recorded communication that is earlier. Whatever else the
earliest cave paintings may be, they are clearly instructional.
The real question is, does something so general as writing or drawing
pictures to tell other people how to do things deserve the title of
profession at all, at least in the sense of a limited fraternity, the sense
in which, say, radiology is a profession. If we are to call it a profession
at all, it can only be in the sense that cooking is a profession: everyone
does it, some do it for a living.
Technical communication is, of necessity, as old as technology itself.
Technology is knowledge, and knowledge which is not communicated is lost.
---
Mark Baker
Manager, Corporate Communications
OmniMark Technologies Corporation
1400 Blair Place
Gloucester, Ontario
Canada, K1J 9B8
Phone: 613-745-4242
Fax: 613-745-5560
Email mbaker -at- omnimark -dot- com
Web: http://www.omnimark.com
