Archive for September, 2009
The Chicago Convergence—CANCELLED
A follow up to my May 20th 2009 post about the TCC 09…the Chicago Convergence is cancelled.
The scheduled 2009 Chicago Convergence has been cancelled. Last year’s event was great. My intention was to volunteer this year. There seemed to be an awesome line up of new media nerds and techie geeks from all professions. Here is a snippet of the email I received:
The Chicago Convergence conference, slated for Sept 21-23 at the Spertus Institute is officially canceled and will be honored with an anniversary party [details in next few days]. We are planning to host additional events and activities over the next 90 days.
TCC is undergoing a massive restructuring in order “to grow a more robust digital community and expand jobs and opportunities,” said Montgomery, who succeeded founder John Patterson of Pixel Brothers when he relocated to Los Angeles earlier this year.
In late July Montgomery convened a meeting of TCC’s Leadership Committee to “edit and repackage ideas” for the second annual Convergence Summit, and to find appropriate future programs to satisfy the membership’s needs, he said at the time. The final nail in the coffin was an unproductive effort to replace sponsors that bowed out when the recession hit earlier this year.
How unfortunate.
Add comment September 10, 2009
Technical Writing Graduate Programs & Certification
In regards to technical writing graduate programs…
…Yes, they exist.
I seen a Wikianswers question regarding the availability of PhD programs in technical writing. Someone replied ”no.” This is incorrect.
As instructional designers and eLearning developers we are interdisciplinary professionals. Technical writing is one of our most common crossover careers…in addition to web designer, video editor, script writer (audio/video), magician, black jack dealer…they think we can do it all. (We can!)
For this reason I wanted to put together a list of technical writing resources. That list could run all day. Instead, I have some links below that you should find helpful depending on your level of technical writing/communication interest.
Reputable graduate programs
- Texas Tech (available onsite or online)
- University of Arkansas, Little Rock
- Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
- Boise State
Technical writing within other academic departments
Another option is to search within traditional academic departments that include technical writing as a track option.
- Writing, Rhetoric, and Discourse(WRD) Departments
- Communications Departments
- Traditional English Departments
- Perform a google search for “technical writing graduate programs”… Results!
Certification programs
Another solution is a certification program within a reputable university and/or training center.
- University of California Riverside
- Tech-writer Certification
- Perform a Google search for “technical writer certification” … Results!
- Society for Technical Communciation (STC) has a great list of online certification courses
Hope this helps…
1 comment September 10, 2009
