MA.....huh! good god y'all, what is it good for.... absolutely nothing....(sorry, bad joke)

Subject: MA.....huh! good god y'all, what is it good for.... absolutely nothing....(sorry, bad joke)
From: "Richard C. Gardner" <rgardner -at- INTRCOM -dot- COM>
Date: Mon, 5 Apr 1999 21:27:34 -0500

First of all, let me thank everyone for the cordial (if controversial)
welcome! Thanks to all of you who sent me advice of any nature, I needed
some TLC and received much encouragement. But I do feel the need to say a
few remarks about the debate that seems to have spun from my introduction.


I seem to have sparked the age old debate about Academics v. Practitioners
in technical writing. So I shall qualify a few things about myself, and
chime in with my 2 cents about the value of higher education and TW.
Please keep in mind that I am not 1) defending myself (any more than
necessary), or 2) defending All technical writing degrees.

I may have misled some people, unintentionally, as to my experience. What I
meant to imply in my introduction (in a humorous and self-deprecating
fashion) was that I have been in school for a LOOOOONNNNG time and will be
glad to go out into the working world and do that which I have been trained
for.

I have worked both in business communications and in marketing, and have
also taught writing and composition at the university for 2 years, so I am
not entirely wet behind the ears. And by "infinite theoretical knowledge"
I only meant to say that I have not, until now, been employed and utilized
as a "technical writer." I have been known by other titles and have done
what is clearly "technical writing," but have not had the pleasure to hold
a position that explicitly demands my skillset and knowledge. It will be
nice to be valued (as opposed to undervalued), as I'm pretty sure I will
be--this company seems to respect the work of technical communicators very
much.

Now...to defend the Academy! (jk) I don't know about the state of
technical communication education across the nation. I am sure that there
are many programs (or what refer to themselves as programs) that are
decidedly less than adequate to prepare the working TW. However, I have
been pleased with my program. The coursework has always been designed to
provide something approximating real world experience, including the use of
the most common and latest tools. And the program from which I am
graduating is tightly involved with both STC and local industry to provide
support and real world experience (internships).


That's my story, and I'm sticking to it (until I change it)!

Rich Gardner

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