Who are we? Ethnography of technical communicators

Those of us working in the field of technical communication today have come from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds. Arriving at technical communication by circuitous paths, we have each brought with us a large bag of assumptions, theories, practices, methods, prejudices, predilections, and attitudes. Almost none of us over thirty originally set technical communication as our career goal. Young professionals with degrees "in field" are just starting to enter the workplace in significant numbers. They represent a different mindset, having intentionally selected the career field and formally studied it. Though they have learned at the feet of "self-taught" professionals, they regard themselves and their careers quite differently. This Idea Market is designed to gather the stories of technical communicators: what field of study they started out in, how they came into technical communication what they know and how they know it. A questionnaire to be completed for this ethnographic survey of technical communication is presented.