Opinion

UW Certificate Program:
Technical Writing and Editing

Like everything precious, the knowledge gained from the University of Washington's Certificate Program in Technical Writing and Editing is expensive. Yet the grueling first quarter, which consumed every minute of everyone's life, was priceless. Subsequent quarters proved less challenging and therefore less valuable, largely due to burnout; however, all the students, from different writing backgrounds and experience, agreed on the merit of the program and its positive impact on their lives.

The first quarter classes teach the backbones of the program: grammar, style, usage and writing technical documents. Even students with considerable writing experience put as much energy into these two courses as newer writers, spending every waking minute of the quarter studying or writing. Between the two classes, we wrote six papers, produced one team project, took three tests, and revised countless sentences—all in 10 weeks.

The results of that quarter were as dramatic as the work was challenging. Not only did we emerge with a firm grasp of grammar, style, and usage, but we were able to defend our choices. We gained experience and comfort writing different types of technical documents, from proposals to Web sites.

The diamond of the program is Dr. Jan Spyridakis, whose grammar and style class is worth its difficulty. She is the most rigorous teacher I've ever had, but she's not to be missed. Egos are not allowed in her class; each student reads their sentence revisions aloud, receives her incisive criticism of their revisions, and learns more than they thought they could. Dr. Spyridakis's dryly-humorous stories provide a welcome balance to the intensity.

Those who survived the first quarter (nearly everyone) moved on to editing and computer applications classes. Editing involved us in the flip side of the revising we did in the previous quarter, and the computer class allowed us brief but insightful forays into applications and tools such as RoboHTML, HTML coding, and Adobe FrameMaker. This quarter was easier than first, but still demanding. Third quarter courses, the least difficult, consisted of production editing and computer documentation. The instructor for production editing has changed since I took the class, so I'll only mention its structure: it begins with the physiological reasons behind the rules of printing and ends with how printing is done, via camera and digitally.

Many instructors are master's degree or doctoral students possessing expertise in at least one area of technical communication, or more. I found all the teachers to be thoughtful, intelligent, and supportive, but some students were frustrated by instructors who had little teaching experience or unusual teaching styles. Although I think burnout from first quarter was partially to blame for this impatience, I also believe that when concerns are noted in the teacher and class evaluations, the administrators, truly concerned about the program's excellent reputation, give them considerable weight.

If you are prepared for the time and energy commitment, and you know that technical writing and/or editing is what you want to study, your investment will be worth the cost.

Tina Carter is karate student of over 20 years, who is making her living as a software support engineer until she can find a way to write for a living.