Re: Certification Issues

[Nora Merhar <nmerhar -at- CHASIND -dot- COM>]

Bill,

I think what upset people was that you didn't make your intentions
clear from the start. Most people thought we were discussing the pros
and cons of certification, but in fact all your posts SINCE the first
one (asking the survey questions) have been clearly in favor of
certification.

> Ernie,
>   You are making the case that technical communicators have no
certifiable
> skills and that no agency is capable of certifying them. I agree, if
you are
> talking just about the technologies we write about. But don't we
have other
> skills that are stable enough to be certified? It is my position
that it is
> the obligation of the employer to teach us the technologies. What
> preparation can give us  is both the communication skills and the
> technical-learning skills.

Ah! What PREPARATION can give us! NOT certification! From the posts to
this list, I would say that TW have "prepared" for their careers in a
variety of ways--as programmers, English majors, and golf pros, to
name a few.

I don't think that we have skills that are stable enough to be
certified. How can you quantify ability to learn quickly, figure out
what users want, meet deadlines, get information from SMEs in the most
efficient way possible...? What are you gonna do--have an all-day test
in which we have to get information from reluctant SMEs, use a tool we
have never seen before to create some sort of documentation, get it
back to the SMEs and somehow coax a review out of them, and then get
it to our users by 6:00?

Assuming it is decided that it is possible to quantify these skills,
who's gonna care? I have yet to hear of industry clamoring for
"certified" technical writers. I believe that most people hiring
aren't going to look at it as even a guarantee of minimum competence.

I have an MA in technical writing. I am sure that it has gotten me in
to some doors--but what happened when I got in through those doors
had, I think, very little to do with my degree.

Nora
merhar -at- chasind -dot- com

 TECHWR-L (Technical Communication) List Information: To send a message
to 2500+ readers, e-mail to TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU -dot-  Send commands
   to LISTSERV -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU (e.g. HELP or SIGNOFF TECHWR-L).
  Search the archives at http://www.documentation.com/  or search and
browse the archives at http://listserv.okstate.edu/archives/techwr-l.html