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> 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.
But it can't hurt to try, provided there's a certification program
that makes sense.
> 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.
So focus on the pieces... I can see certification in areas such as
(but not exactly, and not limited to):
* help authoring theory
* pre-press work
* copy editing
* indexing
* print layout and design
* section 508 compliance
* online layout and design
* PDF publication
* internationalization for content authoring
* tech pubs management
etc...
> 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.
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