Re: Certification--a new concept. Discuss.

[David Neeley <dbneeley -at- gmail -dot- com>]

Certification will only be taken seriously by others if techwriters
ourselves take it seriously. Even then, it will take time to be
recognized beyond our own profession.

Part of the difficulty, I think, is the related factor that tech
writing itself is not well defined as a separate profession with a
body of knowledge widely accepted as in our province. Unlike
engineering, law, medicine, or any number of other disciplines,
technical writing is by contrast unfocused.

Certification could, properly done, begin to change that in the
perception of those who employ us. I doubt that it will be done well
enough on a national basis for the foreseeable future. The obvious
mechanism for this would be the STC, if it could get its act
sufficiently together to pull it off. Like the profession in general,
though, STC has a great deal of work to do to gain respect within our
own community.

David

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