Re: Thinking Patterns (was RE: Interviews (5 Year Question))

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>This is also why I frickin' hate most college writing 
>programs. They focus so much emphasis on literature 
>and tools that they fail to teach the nitty gritty

No joke.  I'm two classes away from completing a Master's in Professional Writing, and I almost had a cardiac when I asked someone what the technical writing class was like.  (I figured I was in a good position to skip that elective.)

Her innocent answer was "Fonts and whitespace and stuff - you know, making it look good."  When I picked my jaw up off the floor I asked about process solving, writing directions, organizing information. "No, nothing like that."

On the other hand, there were two classes that have made the whole degree and two-hour commute worthwhile.  One was on "Business writing" which really was closer to field technical writing.  The first class started with the teacher leading us through folding an origami crane.  Then we had to write the directions for the crane, trade directions, and follow each other's instructions.  If I ever reach my goal of teaching tech writing, I'm starting with that exercise - it's instant enlightment!

The other one was a mandatory in "Rhetoric, Power of Persuasion" which was in reality "Aristotle stripped down for the common modern student."  Although the teacher never expressly said so, he replaced the old "who, what, when, where, why, how" with "Three whys and a what" - Why are you writing this, why should the audience care, why should the audience believe you, and what are you trying to say?

This was, of course, slanted more towards persuasive nonfiction than technical writing, but it doesn't take too much twiddling to change it to our needs.  What are you trying to say?  How to program the VCR.  Why should the audience care?  They want to know but they don't want to need a degree to understand.  Why should the audience believe you?  Because what you tell them is clear and obviously describes the machine they are looking at.  

Admittedly, "why are you writing this" tends to boil down to the unromantic "because I'm being paid for this."

Which is a rather long-winded way of saying "Andrew, there are some good college writing classes.  Not enough of them, but they do exist."

Nea Dodson
currently .sig-less

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