TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
*I've been a proponent of certification for a long time. Why? Because
I've watched terribly incompetent people become billed as great
technical writers, while the competent and experienced people get passed
over and forgotten. I've worked with people in STC who are passionate
about our profession, and their technical communication skills in actual
practice are horrific.
I think that IF STC does this properly (I won't go into my concern on
that level here), it could be a plus to the profession. But the key
issue is, how do find out if someone really is a good technical
communicator? I believe that technical communication is far more than
the ability to write a procedure. It involves a lot of other things as
well. When I first entered this profession I was curious about the
personalities and characteristics I saw in many of the technical
communicators I was acquainted with.
At the time I was based in Israel and began doing my MA in Technical
Authorship via distance learning. I recruited people from this list to
participate in a survey that I did of technical writers from around the
world. Part of the survey included professional questions, in an attempt
to correlate professional effectiveness with personality.
I won't waste your time with the personality issues right now. Of more
interest was my professional effectiveness index. How was I going to
determine if the people who participated in my study were "good"
technical writers without a writing sample or a personal interview.
Basically, after reviewing the literature and looking at actual
professional situations, and a LOT of discussions with other
professionals, I asked the participants to rate how important certain
factors relating to the profession were to them. This was a rating based
on each aspect of our work, not which aspect was more important, rather
how important was this aspect to the participant.
However, I had other criteria, which looked at several other issues
including: years of experience, professional achievements and
activities, professional satisfaction, and some subjective ratings
(where the person rated themselves).
Statistical analysis seemed to indicate that I had a pretty good
effectiveness rating. There were good correlations with personality
traits, and to make a long story short, the thesis was accepted.** (The
correlations, by the way, were supported by the personality test
results. Certain personality characteristics had already been seen to
have a positive impact on job performance. The results of my study
showed that the the more professionally effective technical
communicators did indeed have the personality characteristics that
matched their performance!)*
*
My point (and Bill, if you'd like, I can share with you the thesis if
you think it would help in your considerations), I do think that my
questionnaire helped to find who were the low and high performers within
a reasonable margin of acceptability. Combining a test like this,
together with proficiency exams, could help to provide certification to
those who don't necessarily have a certificate. Having a degree in the
field does not mean you are a good technical communicator, it is only
one parameter that should be considered. After all, there are excellent
technical writers out there who never took a course. They fell into the
profession.
If anyone would like to read my thesis, let me know off list. I'd be
glad to provide it to you for perusal and discussion. Just please note,
somewhere in-between all of my computers, I have the draft version in
PDF only, and the version with typos that I had not yet corrected. For
some crazy reason, I cannot find the final version that I submitted
(without the typos) anywhere. ARGH!
Gain access to everything you need to create and publish information
through multiple channels. Your choice of authoring (and import)
formats with virtually any output. Try Doc-To-Help free for 30-days. http://www.doctohelp.com/
---
You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as archive -at- web -dot- techwr-l -dot- com -dot-
