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>Does anybody else see the similarities between this topic (certifying
>tech writers) and the to-do last week about people using the title
>"engineer"? It seems like it's okay to want to protect your own
>profession, but it's silly for another group to get all bent out of
>shape about their title.
Speaking as an engineer with degrees from an accredited school in a
discipline that back in '77 was inadequately represented by NSPE tests, my
concern with certification of technical communicators remains the issue of
who decides what defines the key knowledge areas for the profession, as a
whole, and for each of the sub-disciplines contained therein. I remain
steadfast in my belief that certification for the sake of certification is
a waste of time unless (a) it is required by law (which is certainly not
the case for all career paths within engineering), or (b) it is pursued for
personal reasons (such as wanting to be able to add the letters "PE" to a
business card.)
If certification of technical communicators is approached, I would hope
that the profession would seek a more dynamic and realistic model to follow
than that used by the engineering profession. Moreover, I would hope that
the certification process would recognize that successful performance in an
accredited program of study, or through experience, is a much better
indication of competence and knowledge than any short-term test. After all,
if a single test were sufficient to indicate future performance, then we
all would have gotten our degrees as soon as we passed our SATs and our
GREs without the need to attend classes and perform work within acceptable
requirements.
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