Re: STC Certification Survey

[Hillary Jones <hillary -at- NICHIMEN -dot- COM>]

I'm out of the loop on the certification thing--how would it work? You
take a test and *BOOM!* you're certified?

If that's the case, I don't think I like the idea. As Mike wrote,
there's such a wide range of skills and knowledge tech communicators
could have, and if I'm lacking one (and it happens to be on the test),
that doesn't mean I don't have others that make me a good tech
communicator. Also, we're not in a field where there's one right way to
do something--all the debate on this list proves that!

And the concept of certification seems to say that there are people out
there who know what a good technical communicator should be and should
know--and how many of us out there think we're those people! ;-) I
attended grad programs in tech communication at two different
universities, and these programs had very different views on what tech
communicators needed to know and how to measure if a someone deserved
the degree. In other words, depending on which program you chose, you'd
learn different stuff, and of course both programs felt that their
curriculum was what tech communicators needed to know.

So who decides what you have to know to get certified?

If the certification wouldn't happen in the form of a test or something,
how would it work?

My $0.02 worth of opinion--as someone else wrote, you get what you pay
for! ;-)


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Hillary Jones
hillary -at- nichimen -dot- com

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