<p>I'm considering a minor in either technical writing or Spanish. </p>
<p>Neither minor would add any additional clutter to my schedule, I'd be using required general education classes to complete them. At the school I'm attending next year, most people recommend doing a humanities and social sciences minor, as the amount of required gen eds makes it really easy. So which is more valuable, technical writing or Spanish? (I'm already fluent in Spanish)</p>
<p>I feel that Spanish would be useful in both proving my fluency and allowing me to stay fluent in college. I feel that technical writing would be valuable because I'd be doing so much technical writing as a mechanical engineer. Opinions?</p>
<p>I suppose technical writing would be the better minor of the two. Mathematics or physics may also work well, though I would usually recommend no minor at all. </p>
<p>Where would you like your MechE degree to take you after graduation?</p>
<p>@LLaKHigH Thank you, that’s what I was thinking. Again, it’s mostly about the required humanities classes and turning them into something useful, so math and physics don’t fit that category. </p>
<p>@UWHuskyDad I’m looking for a minor that I can achieve with only my required humanities classes which I’ll have to take anyways. The minors you listed wouldn’t fall under the GenEd category. I’ll be using all my free non-GenEd classes to take deeper MechE courses.</p>
<p>Yea, in that case, I’d go technical writing. You will likely do tons of that in your MechE classes anyway and having additional training might give you a let up. </p>
<p>Plus, that’s relevant to many MechE industry jobs, and you’ll certainly need technical writing skills if you decide to go into academia. It’s just a good general skill to have as an engineer. The additional Spanish knowledge from a minor may or may not prove useful.</p>
<p>To be honest, no potential employer cares about a minor in humanities. Generally, you will have to take extra classes beyond the core requirements to do a minor in humanities while majoring in engineering or pure science. A minor in any of the humanities will be helpful if you are thinking of going to law school. My sincere advice is to take courses in humanities which you find interesting rather than with an intention of getting minor degree.</p>
<p>Most schools require you take a course in technical writing if you are an engineering major. That should be more than sufficient.</p>
<p>Between the two, I would minor in technical writing. Much more practical and as UWHuskyDad said, most schools require you to take technical writing anyway. The minor itself is not as important as what skills you’ll be developing. </p>
<p>So if you haven’t taken any technical writing courses, I would suggest the minor.</p>
<p>Yeah I’m hearing all of you and it looks like experience in technical writing will be helpful towards a career in engineering. Thanks for the input everybody!</p>
<p>You can get the experience of both without minoring in either. You will be way more employable if you write well AND speak Spanish than you will if you minor in either. Take the classes you need to get where you want to be and don’t worry about the minor. Employers will care about the skills you bring far more than the paper you hold.</p>