FW: A suspected can of worms

[Richard Lippincott <richard -dot- lippincott -at- ae -dot- ge -dot- com>]

Ted Finch asked:
> Recently a college mentioned she felt that tech writing/comm programs
> belonged in the engineering department because the understood the
> "technical" while rather than the program being in an English 
> department.  I
> guess she suspected that English professors wouldn't understand the
> "technical" part.  
> 
> Just wondering what you all though about this

I'm not sure it's as critically important which department it is in so much
as what the quality of the program itself is. Although one could make a
strong argument in favor of placing it under engineering, some highly
respected schools have it elsewhere. No one disputes the quality of the Tech
Com program at RPI, but it's been in the Language/Literature/Humanities
department there since its inception in 1924. 

Nobody sneezes at the Northeastern University program either, and as
Marguerite points out it's in their English department.

France Baril said:
>From previous discussions we had on this list, I would say it depends =
>on what you document. Can't it be a joint program?

But the question there is "While you're still in school, how do you know
what you'll be documenting when you get a job?" What you end up documenting
may not even -exist- when you're in school. Everyone on this list aged 45 or
over who documents web-based applications is working on something that
didn't exist when they went to school. I don't think I'm going too far out
on a limb when I say that 10 years from now, a fair chunk of us on this list
will be documenting -something- new and exciting that right now we've never
heard of. Will it be software? Hardware? Biomed? I don't know, so it's kinda
hard to train for it specifically. 

For a student entering college this fall with the intent of becoming a tech
writer, what advice should we give -today- to assure that student will find
work in a field that is active and hot in the spring of 2007? The problem
with that question is that none of us know what will be active and hot in
the spring of 2007. What if our student's field just isn't active by then,
either due to economic problems or technological obsolescence? And when I
say "economic problems" I don't mean a downturn in general. Some areas have
gotten hit harder than others. A student who entered college with plans to
work in commercial aerospace (i.e. Boeing) and graduated in June 2002 has
been pretty much out of luck since then. The aerospace industry crashed (no
pun intended) after 9/11, hasn't recovered, and as we discussed last week
Boeing is making plans to eliminate over 250 tech writers. Ouch. 

One last thought.
GeneK said:
>If past history holds, it'll be another
>5-10 years before we're likely to see anything 
>approaching the 90's again, during which it's 
>going to be like the 80's. 

Oh, great. Big hair comes back just about when mine all falls out.
(Wait...that's not what you meant?)

--Rick Lippincott
  Lockheed Martin
  Saugus MA

 



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