The social network for technical communicators
Technical writing refers to a very useful form of writing and communication for projects, lab reports, instructions, diagrams and many other forms of professional writing. This style of writing is geared towards communicating information related to fields such as science and technology. The challenge lies in the ability of the writer to explain the facts about technology or science in the most simplistic and understandable manner. Actually, technical writing is not an easy task for college students. Therefore, I think technical writing course should be added to the curriculum at college level.
As for art students, it is very necessary for them to take technical writing course. Technical writing course teaches students many certain skills like critical thinking, research methodology, technical communication, documentation design and so on. All these skills are pretty helpful in workplace. In addition, art students are able to effectively communicate technical information through this style of writing. They can set the focus for themselves while writing on some unfamiliar subjects such as chemistry, computer technology and physics. This form of writing enables art students to master all sorts of knowledge such as economy and medicine.
In addition, technical writing course can help science students much better at the skill and be able to communicate with other people about what they are doing and how do to something. For example, when automobile engineers need to design engine, they have to do a lot of work which are based on technical documents about automobile engine. So engineers should comprehend and write those documents. If science students have taken technical writing course, they could better understand what task they are going to accomplish and explain to others the outcome of their new design.
The last but not the least, technical writing offers the opportunity to earn a lucrative living. Due to the financial crisis, more and more undergraduates can not find a suitable job with decent salary. On the contrary, technical writers have great opportunity to make a great living at what they do. Many companies are willing to pay top dollar to hire people with excellent writing skills, so undergraduates could make a comfortable or even an absolutely outstanding living by being a technical writer. Therefore, technical writing course can help students make a living for a rainy day. Or some people even can take it as a career.
To sum up, I do think technical writing course should be added to the curriculum at college level. It is really helpful for art students and science students as well as their future career.