Hi, everyone!
I’m a high school junior currently considering a career in technical writing. Does anyone know anything about the linguistics program? Like, is it a good, well-developed program? I’m interested in it because I think it would give me a good background in the foundations of writing, but I can’t find any information on it besides what’s on the MU website. Any help would be appreciated!
I don’t think that a degree in linguistics is the right degree for technical writing. You need both understanding of the technical fields that you’d be writing about, and the ability to write well. English or journalism, combined with basic courses in the technical fields about which you think you’d like to write, would be the way to go. Linguistics is more about the structure of language, the origins of language, the nitty gritty of how the brain and language interact, etc.
Thanks for your input.
My thinking was that having the knowledge of the structure, etc., might be useful, and that I would combine it with a complementary double major or minor focusing more on writing, along with courses to help with understanding of the technical field I’d want to work in.
I suggest that you do a little research about what linguistics is. It really has nothing whatsoever to do with developing one’s writing skills. You will need writing courses - those are going to be found in the English department. And you’ll need intro classes in whatever technical fields you might be planning to write about.