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Are you saying that there are no objective standards by which a writer's
skill can be measured? If so, I am sure your answer would be of great
interest to all editors, writing majors, and teachers of writing. They
certainly jump through a lot of hoops trying to explain the standards of
usage, structure, grammar, style, rhetoric, precision, and clarity. You and
I both can not only tell good technical writing from bad, but also what makes
it good and bad in objective terms. Not only are language and writing skills
testable, but also many other skills required by technical communicators.
Bill DuBay
Technical Writer
Phoenix Technologies Ltd.
email: bill_dubay -at- phoenix -dot- com
(714)790-2049 FAX: (714)790-2001 http://www.phoenix.com
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Original Text
From: Eric Haddock <ehaddock -at- engagenet -dot- com>, on 6/16/97 2:52 PM:
> You're saying, then, that we don't have any certifiable skills. Am I
correct?
I'm saying that the only skill all technical writers share (and I assume
this certification process business is for all technical writers) is writing.
This skill is so subjective that "certification" in it is meaningless. It's
_very_ much like asking science-fiction novelists to be certified. What's the
point of that? There isn't one and there wouldn't be with technical writers
either.
There are no skills other than writing that I can think of that are in use
by _all_ technical writers.
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