our roots

Beyond the Daystar
University horizon
By Purity Kiambi
I
write to introduce you to Technical
and Professional Communication, one
of the least known courses in Daystar
University, yet one with a very high impact
on any graduate joining the work place.
Technical and Professional Communication
(TPC) resides in the Department of
Communication.
Many a times we see adverts for jobs
that clearly state that applicants must have
strong writing or communication skills. This
is a requirement that underlines one of the
key skills that the industry is expecting from
any one joining the workplace. Strangely
though, on the flipside of things, we read
about graduates who are joining the work
place, but cannot write. One professor in
the US said, ‘We’ve got the smartest young
people we’ve ever had, but they just can’t
write well,’ (Kinsman, 2004). This comment
summarises the many complaints that are
coming from the workplace currently.
The 21st century is delineated by good
writing or communication skills. To succeed,
and rise in the corporate world today, one
must exemplify strong writing skills by being
a lucid communicator. Every graduation
ushers fresh graduates into a world
unknown to them; one that is expectantly
waiting to receive new graduates with
innovative ideas, ready to transform the
corporate world.
It is within this backdrop that the TPC
programme was developed. It takes into
cognisance the fact that every action in
the work place is documented, hence the
need to have graduates who are cogent in
Students at work in one of the computer labs in Daystar University, Valley Road campus
their writing or communication skills. The to those who need it by producing texts
21st century requires one to be dexterous that people use at work and in their
in writing to survive, and one’s ability to
private lives to enable them understand
write lucidly can guarantee one’s rise in the technology and carry out tasks. Its
corporate ladder. The TPC programme is multidisciplinary nature opens up career
multidisciplinary and prepares students opportunities in many fields including selfemployment,
editing, computer industry,
for the writing and different forms of
documentation that take place in the work Marketing, Public relations, Advertising,
place.
Journalism, marketing, Technical writing,
TPC enables a communicator to be able finance, defense, manufacturing and
to transfer information from the experts pharmaceutical industries, teaching etc.
22 • DaystarConnect 2015