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Subject:Re: Imagine you teach From:Chris Hamilton <chamilton__ -at- YAHOO -dot- COM> Date:Tue, 22 Dec 1998 05:02:17 -0800
Were I designing a technical communication degree, I'd require that
there be a minor involved. I don't care what it is, but IMO, it's not
enough to know how to write. You have to know at least a little bit
about what you're writing about. You need a discriminator.
If you want to be a software technical writer, it would be extremely
beneficial to know about programming principles.
If you want to be a medical technical writer, I'd imagine some science
or pre-med courses might be in order.
If you want to write about business issues, perhaps business or
management courses...
But, at the risk of igniting a flame war, it's not enough for most
people to know how to write. I'm very good at writing software
documentation because I know it. If you offered me a chance to hire
the best medical technical writer in the world, I'd probably pass
because of their lack of subject-matter expertise. If you offered me a
job writing medical documentation, I'd pass for the same reason.
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Chris Hamilton
chamilton__ -at- yahoo -dot- com (double underscore)
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