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Subject:certification redux From:Geoff -dot- King -at- NA -dot- NWMARKETS -dot- COM Date:Mon, 16 Jun 1997 15:03:52 +0100
(Bill wrote earlier in response to my objections concerning the "survey.")
Geoff, you should be asking yourself one last question....
While I am against technical writer certification, I do favor requiring
would be technical writers to first obtain a bachelor's degree in a
technical field, then obtain a master's degree in technical writing....
Think about it, a technical writer who actually has technical credentials.
________________________________________________________________
Bill--
It has only been in the last 30 years or so that journalists needed a
journalism degree to get a job. Is journalism better than it was 30 years
ago? More sophisticated with technology, no doubt. Better writers or
reporters, I doubt it. (You're kind of a journalist, aren't you Bill?)
It is a maniacal tendency in American culture to conjure up a
degree/certification program for every aspect of life, just as there is a
fanatical tendency to create things and shortly thereafter deem them
"necessary." Corner the market and reap the head tax. German sociologist
Max Weber would see this relentless routinization for what it is: an
attempt at exclusivity and compartmentalization that has little to do with
ensuring quality.
There may be "one last question" that I should ask myself, but I doubt
this is it. Here's a penultimate question for you, kind of a proverb
actually, written back in 1973: "If they've got you asking the wrong
questions, they don't need to worry about the answers."
geoff -dot- king -at- na -dot- nwmarkets -dot- com
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