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Subject:Degreed and insulted!! Was:Beginner... From:Joan Miles Smith <jsmith -at- CCD -dot- HARRIS -dot- COM> Date:Fri, 27 May 1994 08:34:36 -0400
I usually just read this list, and don't get too emotional over
anything, especially Skinny Dip postings! Anyway, I am concerned
about the recent thread discussing what a beginning
"non tech writing" person should do to become a tech writer.
I purposely finished college with a Technical Communications
degree. I *wanted* to be a technical writer. I was almost insulted
when "beginner" asked if tech writing courses were "worth it", but
I realized that it was a valid question, being a "beginner."
Then, this morning, I read that a hiring manager doesn't even
look to see if someone is degreed/qualified with courses for
writing. It just makes me frustrated that although I always
considered myself "a writer" and that is why I got my degree
in something which I was good, that the same attitudes about
tech writers prevail, even in this day and age when we KNOW
that we are needed!
Just because a programmer or whomever has written a document or
two, that doesn't make him/her a "writer." A writer must know
the fine points of clarity, and in many cases, brevity to get
an instruction or description across. And, yes, all of the
tedious rules of grammar that I love so much, most often abhorred
by engineers, are terribly important!
I guess my point is, how many of you are actually degreed communicators,
tech writing or other writing, and have you found that it is
easier to find work writing as a "writer" or as "other" who
has written.
Obviously this an emotional response from me, but I, too, have
been looking for a newjob in a different area of the state, and
am getting frustrated by that, too!
Joan M. Smith
Technical Writer
Harris Corp.
jsmith -at- ccd -dot- harris -dot- com
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