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> 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.
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.
---
Mark Baker
Stilo Corporation
1900 City Park Drive, Suite 504 , Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, K1J 1A3
Phone: 613-745-4242, Fax: 613-745-5560
Email mbaker -at- ca -dot- stilo -dot- com
Web: http://www.stilo.com
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