JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL EDUCATION
THE TRAINING OF CHEMISTS AND CHEMICAL ENGINEERS FOR TECHNICAL JOURNALISM1 ETHALINE CORTELYOU Armour Research Foundation, Chicago, Illinois
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JAMES BARRIEonce said, "The man of science ernment as its progenibor. It was the clause in governappears to he the only person who has something to say ment-research contracts requiring periodic reporting of just now, and the only mau who does not know how to progress that pointed up the need for technical editors say it." It seems to me that his statement is probably and writers as liaison between the research man and administration. even truer today than it was when he made it. I n the past two decades more technical writers and Technology is progressing a t such a rapid pace that editors have been employed by government agencies, today's students find it necessary to learn more and more about less and less in order to gain even a hach- research and development organizations, and industry elor's degree in a science. The ever increasing vol- than by book-publishing firms, professional and trade ume of scientific knowledge is crowding liberal-arts journals, and newspapers. This is not surprising when subjects out of the technical curricula. In fact, I was it is recalled that more than three billion dollars was quite shocked to learn recently that some engineering spent on research and development in the United schools are seriously considering reducing their English States in 1 9 X 2 Albrecht and Gould3 of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute reported, "At least 2000 journals requirements to a one-semester came. Out of this trend toward specialization has grown the devoted t,o technical or industrial information are reneed for technical editors and writers. Perhaps we leased periodically in this c o u n t ~by independent should recognize the years of World War I1 as the real publishers. Another 1500 periodicals are published birthdate of technical journalism, and the U. S. gov- by industry itself (the so-called "house organs," sales reports, research data, etc.). These publications must 1 Prpaent,ed as on Trainine Chemists ~~-oart of the Svm~osiurn ~, 2 A ~CHRISTIAN ~ ~ K.,~J. Enq. ~ ,Edue., 45, 258 (1954). and (:hemiwl Enginrvrs lu Technical \Vriting b ~ f o r rria, Division of Ctcmwal Litr.rnruw at the 128th llwring oi thc .\rnrric:~u a ALBRECHT, GEORGE H., AND JAYR. GOULD,J. CHEM. EDUC., ~
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Chemical Society, Minneapolis, September, 1955.
32, 407 (1955).
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he written hy people who know what they are talking about, i . e., people with scientific training and experience." The field has opened up so rapidly that many are unaware of either the need for or the availability of techuical writers and editors. So it is not surprising that colleges have only recently begun to consider seriously the need for technical-journalism curricula. Most schools with journalism curricula were inclined to consider technical journalism as only another phase of the already well-established profession and to insist that "a writer is a writer is a writer is a writer," whether he writes poetry or electronics-equipment operations manuals. If they made any concession to the new field it was to add a single course in so-called technical journalism--often a noncredit course, at that, taught by one of the journalism faculty. One well known school of journalism pays lip service to the atomic age by printing in its catalogue: Science Writing Therc is today a flowing demand for men and women who have s. good scientific or teehn~cdbackground combined with professional training in journalism. One recent graduate in this field is the science editor of a large metropolitan daily. Others have gone to scientific or technical magazines. The student who elects this program combines the field of concentration in natural science. . .with either the News or Magazine sequence. Graduate students who have a degree in engineering, chemistry, physics, or zoology superimpose the News or Magazine sequence courses on top of the technical or scientific training.
This sounds attractive until the science or engineering graduate discovers that to get a master's degree in journalism he must have about 70 semester hours in jonrnalisn~and English and about 40 semester hours in social sciences, for none of which can he substitute any of his science or engineering credits. Today most so-called technical-journalism curricula list so many required courses designed to teach the would-be technical journalist how to write that there is no time for courses to teach him what to write. Part of the difficulty lies with the technical journalists already in the field. Since the profession, like Topsy, was "never horned but just growed," even now we have no agreement as to what a technical journalist really is. We have entered the field by almost as many diverse routes as there are technical journalists. Many of us are scientists turned journalists. Some of us were trained as journalists. Others were English majors or secretaries. I am certain that the manner in which we entered the field colors our thinking as to what constitutes a good technical journalism curriculum. Most of us were trained either as journalists or scientists; few of us have training in both fields. Actually, both the home economics and agricutural editors are far ahead of the rest of us technical editors and writers in establishing themselves as professionals. Such schools as Kansas State, Iowa State, and the Oklahoma Agricultural and Mechanical Colleges have long had thriving home economics-journalism and agriculture-journalism curricula. I n fact, the agricul-
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tnral college editors have had a national organizatiou for many years and issue a monthly publication ACE. The American Medical Writer's Association (4MWA) which was organized in 1940 has also set us an example. As the result of deliberations by the AMWA Educational Committee in September, 1954, the Universities of Illinois, Oklahoma, and Missouri offer four-year courses in medical journalism. SCIENTIFIC TRAINING ESSENTIAL
As a result of a survey of 200 companies, Walter and Mills4 say, "An opinion widely held is that you can make a writer out of an engineer or scientist more easily than you can make an engineer or scientist out of a writer." Although I agree with them the problem cannot be resolved as simply as that, unfortunately. There are some who argue, "You do not need to make an engineer or a scientist out of a writer, if all you need is a technical writer." According to a survey of 13 advertisements in Chemical and Engineering News for technical writers and editors, employers agree that a technical degree is more important than a degree in journalism. Lest some argue that one vould expect ads in a chemical magazine to be addressed to chemists and chemical engineers, I made a similar survey of five ads for technical editing and writing positions in two issues of the Sunday Chicago Tribune. Not one required a journalism degree; incidentally, all of the newspaper ads were listed under "Help Wanted-Men." Years ago, an unbalanced scholastic diet of too many surreptitious English courses almost proved fatal to me when I came up for a bachelor's degree in chemistry with a minor in mathematics. Somewhat shaken by my narrow escape, I tried to get official sanction for continued indiscretions when I set off for graduate school. I failed to talk the powersthat-he into allowing me to take my master's degree with a major in chemistry and a minor in journalism; in fact, I even failed to get their approval to top off my B.S. with a master's degree in journalism. They did agree to look the other way when I took an occasional journalism course that would "not he allowed for credit toward a master's degree in chemistry." Last year, I managed to squeeze some cold comfort from the fact that I was only 20 years ahead of my times. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute has now exceeded even my wildest dreams by offering a degree of Master of Science with a major in writing, which might be used as a pattern by other schools planning to offer degrees in technical journalism. Rensselaer honestly recognizes a Bachelor of Science degree as the prerequisite for entrance to the graduate school and the basis of a 30-hour graduate program in the English Department. The required English and journalism courses make up 18 semester hours, and of the remaining 12, 6 must be taken outside the English Department. 'WALTER, JOEN A., AND GORDONMILLS, Chem. Eng., 60, 250 (1953).
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When I wrote to Dr. Olmsted, Head of the Department of English a t Rensselaer, about their graduate program in technical writing his reply contained t h i ~ statement, "So far we have resisted the idea of the undergraduate program primarily because we are interested in the professional status of the technical writer and are inclined to question whether a fouryear program leading to the bachelor's degree will enhance that status." I, too, favor the master's degree-as the ultimate goal. But we must be realistic and admit that many people are going into the field with only a bachelor's degree. Certainly, there are more undergraduate thangraduatetechnical-journalismcurricnla,soitseems we should start setting up standards a t that level. Mr. K. R. Marvin, Head of the Department of Technical Journalism of Iowa State College, wrote in a recent letter: For about ten years this department hse offered a major currieulum in Science Journalism. We now have about 50 students enrolled in this eun~iculum,not nearly enough to meet the demands. These students take two ,years of rather broad work in arts and science. Then the," choose a major in journalism and two minors in the social, physical or biological sciences. Seversl of the advanced students in this curriculum have taken two or three years of engineering. We would like to have more students who have the aptitude and the interest in combining advanced work in the physical sciences with journnlism. . . .You will note that the student must earn 15 quitrter credits in each of the seven fields listed [ ( I ) writtm and spoken h d i s h ; (2) mathematics and statistics; (3) chemistry, physics, and geology; (4) botany, zoology, bacteriology, and genetics; (5) economies, sociology, pqychology, and government; (6) history and literature; and ( i )modern isnguagel.. . .Durini: the atudent's sixth quarter in college he plans, withthe aid of his counselor, his program for the junior and senior years. Assuming that he has chosen to major in journalism, he would list . . . 30 quarter hours in technical journalism bcyond the 8 to 12 credit hours which presumably he already has earned in the basic newspaper reporting sequence. . . . We also offer a journalism minor [about 30 quarter hoorsl for students majoring in general engineering.. ..
and Mills4 reported that monthly salaries for technical editors ranged from $250 to $1000. They reported an average beginning salary of $363 and an average top salary of $648. It is only a year ago, almost to the day, that I told the Chemical Education half of my present audience why I believe a chemistry major from a liberal-arts college makes a better technical editor than a chemistry major from a technical school.j I shall not report the details. RECOMMENDED CHEMICAL JOURNALISM CURRICULUM
When I the first draft and this paper, I set the minimum requirements for a technicaljournalism curriculum as: Semester hmm 30 20 8 12
Chemistry or chemical engineering major Journalism and English minor Physics Mathematics
At the time, 1 mas considering the ~ossibilitiesof fitting such requirements into liberal-arts chemistrymajor curricula, In fact, I have heen told that several liberal-arts colleges for such as clarke College, will permit a student to major in chemistry and minor in journalism. These requirements, homever, will not fit illto any existing undergraduate technical.journalism curriculum which I am familiar. Because I believe a writer should know what he is writing about, I do not consider anything less than a major in the subject field desirable. Since studying the matter further, 1 am firmly convinced that ,T.e, as chemists and chemical engineers, fare better in Our own disciplines to the needs of technical journalists rather than by trying to modify established technicaljournalism curricula. Indeed, I have actually found Dr. Clement E. Trout, Head of the Department of that by judicious planning a technical-writing minor Technical Journalism of Oklahoma Agriculture and might be worked into several already-existing chemistry and chemical-engineering curricula, even though the Mechanics College wrote: schools involved do not a t the present time recognize . . . M y own opinion, based on my own experience, is that the a chemistry major with a journalism minor. For individual should register in the scienoes and take basic work instance, a t the University of Virginia, required English just as tho he were preparing for a research or other chemical career. But along with his basic science he should study the courses for a chemical engineer total 15 semester skills of communications.. . .Journalism has the basic approach to hours. If he were permitted to use his 6 hours of what people need.. .hut not the newspaper preparation usually nontechnical electives for such journalism cour-aes as offered. Up t o a. point, this newspaper preparation is basic. copyreading, he probably would have a better course But carried too far i t defeats the purpose of the technical or suhbackground than many a successful technical journalist jeet matter writer. . .. Some journalism ~choolshave scheduled courses in some phase had a t the start. At Purdue a chemical engineering student might of science writing. This is usually for people with the journalism newspaper training and is an attempt to train in devices for pre- find it necessary to take some extra hours to work in senting material without insisting on the student having s, thor- a writing minor, but a determined chemistry major ough understanding of the science. At Oklahoma A. and M., we try to train on a subject matter with an interested adviser could accomplish it within the present curriculum. Either student could supplebasis. We have had little success in getting students interested in chemistry or science w"ting. . .. ment the approximately 15 semester hours of required Perhaps this lack of success may he blamed on English with a choice of 7 or 8 advanced 3-hour Engignorance of the opportunities in the field. Walter 5 CORTELYOU, ETHALINE, J. CHEM.EDUC., 32, 196 (1955).
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lish courses. These should be writing, journalism, or Writers and Editors, a national organization for technigrammar ccurses rather than literature courses. cal journalists, someone came up with an estimate of Those of you who are counseling young chemists over 5000 technical journalists in the United States. and chemical engineers would do well to consider Anyone a t the meeting who was looking for a technical t,echnical journalism as both an interesting and re- writer or editor, as I was, had little doubt that t,here warding new area of endeavor. I especially wish to were jobs for many more. I seldom had a chance to ask recommend it to women.5 I n New York in May at another editor if he knew of available talent because a national meeting of the Association of Technical he usually asked me first.
