Re. What degrees to choose?

[Geoff Hart <geoff-h -at- MTL -dot- FERIC -dot- CA>]

     Despite being a firm believer in the adage "s/he who dies with the
     most letters after their name wins", I'm not convinced of the value of
     an additional degree for most of us. If I had all the time and money
     in the world, I'd never leave the University environment, but reality
     being what it is, I find most of my teaching is self-teaching.

     Yes, I'm one of _those_ people. I read everything I can get my hands
     on, and actually read textbooks occasionally, just for the pleasure of
     it. This works well for me. I even teach myself new software by
     reading the manual (I don't _just_ play with the menus and toolbars
     and hope). For some things, hands-on training is the only way, and I
     attend workshops and "we'll make you do the hard work so you know how
     it's done" training courses or seminars whenever I can. This fits my
     schedule and budget far better than another degree.

     Since I haven't answered the main question, I'll add that for me, as
     an editor, a general background in the subject I'm editing has been
     invaluable. Thus, my forestry degree makes editing forestry
     publications painless and efficient. One problem: When I started
     University, I didn't know that I wanted to be an editor. If you know,
     you can choose your course/degree in advance, but (rhetorical
     question) how can you choose your degree if you don't know?

     I'd love to supplement my training with a good criticism of my editing
     skills by other editors, since this seems more useful to me than just
     attending a course in grammar or rhetoric. (Writers have writers'
     groups, so shouldn't we have editors' groups too?)

     --Geoff Hart   geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca
     #8^{)}   <---got these specs from reading too much online info!