TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Subject:Re: Profession Ethics/Standards From:Guru <guru -at- BOM5 -dot- VSNL -dot- NET -dot- IN> Date:Wed, 21 Oct 1998 23:52:11 +0530
Debbie,
STC has Ethical Guidelines for Technical Communicators. This may be
regarded as the equivalent of code of conducts for other professions, such
as Social Workers, Doctors, Lawyers, Journalists, etc.
However, you will appreciate that these cannot prevent horror stories. The
three situations that you mention cannot be avoided by codes of conduct. In
such cases, the accepted practices in the industry and more so the accepted
practice/codified standards in the company, should hold sway. How long
should a journalist keep his notes? Should they be with him or with the
company? The Publisher and the journalist decide about this. Likewise, what
happens to our notes and what happens to our printed versions and other such
issues are decided primarily by the company and secondarily by the
individuals. I agree with you that these should be codified. A Standards
and Procedures Manual of each company could lay down the policies on such
issues.
While Standards (Rules, Terms & Conditions) do help, I think it is the
implementation or the practice of these standards that is important. A
company may lay guidelines that files should be named such and such,
directories should be named such and such, matter from the harddisk should
be removed/archived, periodic backups will be taken. However, if people do
not follow these guidelines -- disaster will strike.
>If there was an internationally agreed upon code for technical
communicators, maybe
>we'd hear fewer of these horror stories, since people
>would have guidelines for professional behavior
>specifically related to our type of work.
>For technical communicators, the professional code might
>establish rules about things like:
>* storing personal files on the company's server, or on
> our own workstation
>* what to do with handwritten or other notes once a
> project is finished
>* who owns any of the above: the company, or the techncial
> communicator?
