Week 2: Post 1 Comparison

In the first of our four readings, communication is defined by a the STC as a "means to give or exchange information"and technical communication as "conveying instructions and procedures". The second reading from the Department of Labor states that "technical writers develop technical materials, such as equipment manuals, appendices, or operating and maintenance instructions", and "may assist in layout work". It also suggests that a technical writer would be benefited by having earned a degree in a specialized field like business or engineering. The third reading describes technical communicators as writers who "make scientific, technical, and practical knowledge available to a variety of audiences in many kinds of media". Finally, the Defining Technical Writing PowerPoint explains technical writing as the written documents, created by technical communicators, that are the blue prints for action in the applicable work place. To summarize, I think that they all are generally saying that technical writing is the clear, concise conveying of directions for certain tasks.
Since my major is communication, I think that all of the definition provided by each of the assigned articles apply to whatever my future profession might be. For the sake of argument, we'll say for now that I will most likely go into Student Affairs, like my mom, so that I can directly discuss how the generalized definition that each article seemed to agree on will apply. Since a lot of Student Affairs consists of writing and working with Student groups, it is logical that the Students will consistently need instructions on how to successfully run their organizations so that they abide by University policies. Each semester Housing gives instructions on criteria that must be checked before and after each student moves in and out of their dorm rooms. Disability Services gives students directions on when and where to go to get tutoring and how to go about having their test time extended for proctoring in Vickery. Greek Life has extremely specific rules on what fraternities and sororities are and aren't allowed to do in relation to rushing and pledging. Redfern has specific protocol to deal with sick students and CAPS has a certain way that they have to deal with students who are having psychological troubles. All of these programs are captured with in the extremely large spectrum of Student Affairs so I might possibly be working with any of them in the future. Someone has to write all of these instructions, or types of technical writing, for these branches of the Student Affairs, therefore they all apply to my future field.