Writing is important.
Clear communication of thoughts and ideas is one of the most imperative
skills to master. At least that is what
I have always been told. When I was
preparing to graduate from high school, I looked forward to putting aspects of
grammar, style, and literary exploration behind me. I saw myself in an exciting new world where I
would take classes in only the topics in which I was most interested and
passionate. I could not have been more
wrong.
However, I cannot say that I am disappointed. I have learned much more in the past few
years about how significant matters of communication really are. My profession recognizes clear speaking and
writing as a fundamental cornerstone. In
the rapid advancement of technology, new ideas and methods must communicated
even more quickly. Standards must be
developed, shared, and altered as change continues to shape the landscape. Professional writing can take the form of
technical reports, individual memorandums, user manuals, requests and proposals
for new hardware and software components, or marketing and media releases to entice
the buyers of the latest and greatest. The
skills and experience necessary for success in all of these subfields will
almost never be found in one individual, further increasing the need for proficiency
in communication between them.
It is clear to me that professional writing is a critical
skill, but exactly how I will use it remains to be fully known. A computer engineering technology degree
(they tell me) opens one to many possibilities.
I may find myself in a small business working on an information
technology management team. Here I would
require professional writing skills to address corporate supervisors and effectively
communicate the needs of the local staff, while also drafting logs, help
tickets, work orders, and the like. At
the other end of the spectrum, I may find myself in an academic laboratory writing
hundred page reports on the latest research, techniques, and discoveries. Not to mention…*shudder*…grant applications. It is highly likely that programming will be
a large part of what I do wherever I end up, which I suppose is a professional
writing of its own.
I find myself struggling with the formal rigors of my discipline. Many of my professors have encouraged the
embrace of more creative processes in design and problem solving. Those in many branches of my field consider their work to be similar to a fine art. But how much passion can be injected into a
formal and professionally written technical report? Can hundreds of lines of machine code lend a
poetic beauty in form while only ones and zeros in function? Does the rise of digital narratives signify a
creative relationship between man and machine?
In my discipline, to know what it means to write professionally, these
are a few of the more interesting questions I have to answer.