The Information Architecture of an Advanced Degree

by Valerie M. Ball

Many technical communicators may not be so careful, meticulous, or formal with their careers and lives as they are with a Web site, but analogies can be drawn between the two entities. Technical communicators often begin their career and life plans by integrating their short- and long-term goals with the pursuit of an overall life mission. Planning a successful career and life entails understanding professional and personal audiences, nurturing a variety of skills and experience, and expecting positive results.

Part of the IA for a successful career includes education, which often begins with an associate's or bachelor's degree. However, an advanced degree can be the link that furthers the career and enhances the life of the degree-holder, especially for a technical communicator. The Master of Science degree in technical writing from Portland State University is one locally available option.

Profile of Degree Candidates

Many candidates for the MS in Technical Writing degree at PSU do not begin the program immediately after completing undergraduate degrees; instead, they first gain experience in communication or technical professions. Gaining such experience takes time, so many of the candidates are well beyond their 30 th birthdays. In these respects, they share similar backgrounds with the doctoral degree-holders featured in a national survey conducted by Kelli Cargile Cook, Charlotte Thralls, and Mark Zachry (Cargile Cook 2003, p.163).

MS students have likely already determined their short and long-term goals, developed a basic understanding of the audience for technical communication, and at least partially developed the skills and experience of a technical communicator. In addition, many adult students support their personal life missions by integrating career and life choices with relationships among family and friends.

At the beginning of the degree program, MS students already have many IA procedures in place. Advanced coursework provides a measurable addition to the total content of their knowledge and skills.

Core Courses

Four core courses-advanced technical writing, document design, technical editing, and organizational management-advance the student to a higher level of basic skills.

Advanced technical writing concentrates upon analyses and strategies for audiences and organizations. Document design focuses upon planning, creating and revising communications; the goal of both strategies is to provide usable documentation.

Technical editing encourages students to hone their advanced writing and document design skills by collaborating with local businesses on technical communication projects.

Finally, organizational management brings together MS writing and MBA candidates in a course taught in the School of Business Administration. This course provides insights into the structure of organizations and helps to develop team-building skills.

The core courses comprise one-third of the credits necessary for graduation. Applying the IA analogy to core courses, MS students build site content and more precisely define their short and long-term goals, their life missions, and the professional and personal audiences for their careers and lives.

Elective and Specialization Courses

The remaining eight courses necessary for graduation can be chosen from a wide range of offerings. Of these courses, four are elective and four must be chosen from a specialization such as Publications Management, Technical Communication, Multimedia, or a concentration agreed upon with the student's advisor. With the advisor's approval, specialization courses can include disciplines outside the Department of English's writing curriculum.

Wrapping up the Degree

PSU MS students in Technical Writing conclude their degree work with a final project, usually a portfolio, to demonstrate their professional competency; this final project is also the basis for a written and oral examination in its defense.

More details and an application for admission for PSU's MS degree in Technical Writing are available online at www.english.pdx.edu/cew .

Positive Results beyond the Degree

The IA analogy holds true for the MS candidate's personal integration of audience, short and long-term goals, a life mission, and the building of knowledge and skills for the content of career and life. While an MS degree may not produce immediate, tangible results, the first positive results may include increased confidence, a fresh viewpoint, and knowledge of the latest recommendations for improvements to the profession. Further positives include peer and professional reviews of students' coursework and valuable networking opportunities among students, professors and instructors. The degree itself provides the academic and professional recognition which identifies the degree-holder as an expert.

Perhaps the least tangible results are the most satisfying: By striving to improve, the MS candidate demonstrates the creativity and gumption that exemplify the best technical communicators. STC President Thea Teich expresses these attributes and aspirations in the following:

. . . with every challenge we take on, with every project we complete that expands our knowledge of audience, content, and delivery systems, with every course we take and every conference session we attend, we are doing something to nurture the expert within us and further our development. We accept new challenges largely because we anticipate a form of enjoyment attached to the process . . . The professional development process enables us to know what we are truly capable of doing-and that is the hallmark of an expert. (Teich 2002, p. 7)

You go, expert-and make an advanced degree part of your career and personal IA!

Works Cited

Cargile Cook, Kelli, Charlotte Thralls, Mark Zachry. 2003. "Doctoral-level graduates in professional, technical, and scientific communication 1995-2000: A profile." Technical communication . 50, 2:160-173.

Teich, Thea. 2002. "Nurture your inner expert." Intercom . 49, 3:6-8.

About the Author

Employed as a technical writer at Rockwell Collins Flight Dynamics, Valerie M. Ball has been a member of WVC since January 2002, served as a technical art judge in the 2002-2003 and 2003-2004 competitions, and won an award of excellence for her trade-journal article, "Risk-Free Runways." In a series of career transitions, she has been a political writer and a university instructor of English in New York, China, Oregon, and Japan. She can be reached at vmball@rockwellcollins.com ; a more extensive development of this article is available as one of her presentations at the 2003 STC Region 7 Conference, www.region7conference.com.