Re: PHD in Tech writing

["Chuck Martin" <cm -at- writeforyou -dot- com>]

"Mark Baker" <mbaker -at- ca -dot- stilo -dot- com> wrote in message news:211852 -at- techwr-l -dot-  -dot-  -dot- 
> Chuck Martin wrote:
> > Technical
> > Writing (Technical Communication, user Assistance Engineering,
Information
> > Development, etc.) is an engineering discipline with its own body of
> > research. One person told me years ago that advanced degrees in the
> > discipline (he was getting his Masters) focused more on the
> > theoretical than
> > the "practical" (such as how to use tools or how to edit).
> >
> > But that theory is knowledge. Knowledge that can help you do your job
> > better. Knowledge that can help you do you job faster. Knowledge that
can
> > lead to a better return on your company's investment.
>
> There are many field of human endeavor for which it is true that we can
> study, in great detail, how and why things work or don't work. However, in
> many of those fields, from catching a ball, to playing an instrument, to
> writing a novel, the study of these explanations simply doesn't contribute
> much, if anything, to actual performance.
>
> You have only to read the books written by most communication theorists to
> know that studying communication theory does not make you a good
> communicator. Baseball pitchers don't learn to throw and batters don't
learn
> to hit by studying the physics and the trigonometry the explains the
> behavior of the ball in flight. Instead, they train their eye by constant
> practice.

Actually, many hitters, as well as most hitting instructors, have done at
elast some study of physics. Combined with their training, it emables them
to learn how to reacts when they see the ball spinning a certain way coming
off the pitcher's hand.

Physics also demonstrates why it is better to hit the cutoff man froom the
outfield than to try and make a throw to home from deep. This is not
intuitive.

>
> Nothing wrong with the study of the mechanisms of communication, but it is
> not the right way to train writers. Writers need to train their ear and
> their eye by constant reading, writing, and criticism. That is how skills
of
> this type are actually mastered.
>

It's not just communication that is learned. Among the topics in graduate
study in the field: information design, learning theory, various types of
psychology and physiology, etc. Advanced degrees are not about writing
skills.

Remember, too, the discipline is not about just writing. Everything
communicates. As a technical communicator, you're responsible, in part, for
how the product you're documenting inherently communicates its function. Do
that well (or learn how to do it well), and you'll be doing less actual
writing.

Chuck Martin