Certification

[Frank -dot- Harper -at- ES -dot- ATL -dot- SITA -dot- INT]

Bernie, lighten up.  STC is an international organization with chapters in
Canada, Israel, France, Japan, New Zeland, Singapore, and Taiwan. So perhaps
it should have a HUGH say in certification.

Anyway, any organization can certify members for a specific skill using their
own criteria. Their certification will be viewed based on its certified
members performance. Anyone who wants to be certified must belong to the
organization and meet the certification criteria. (I cite the IEEE, ASRAHE,
etc.) There are still engineers who work at their profession who are not
certified, but if you want a guarantee of quality, you should use one who is
certified.

After twelve years in this field (seven in STC) I believe that we need some
type of certification, simply to enhance our employablity. I do not know of
any other organization for technical writers that provides any certification.
STC has been wrestling with this for a number of years and has still not
defined the criteria for their certification - probably because of the broad
range of technical writing. When it does, you better believe I will be one of
the first to sign up for the process.

If we, as technical writers, expect to be viewed as a profession, we need some
governing body to insure that we live up to the standards of the profession
(what ever they are). Otherwise, we will continue to be viewed as high-paid
typists.

IMHO
---soapbox mode off-------
----------------------------------------------------------
Name: H. Frank Harper           I am not the same having
E-mail: hfharper -at- pobox -dot- com      seen the moon shine on the
                                other side of the world.
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