Re: Kill the Certification Thread

[Elna Tymes <etymes -at- LTS -dot- COM>]

rlprice's somewhat garbled message said:

> This mat be a peat of a previous discussion however it is new to me and many
> new members of the list.

Which is no excuse for not checking to see if the archives -and they are
*extensive* on this list - contain elements of this discussion.  I have yet to
see a single argument in this particular discussion which hasn't been
previouslsy raised.

> Certification is a major topic and will be a issue
> for some time to come. It is inevitable that certification will become the
> standard. There are too many client, liability, and legal issues involved
> for the profession to remain unlicensed.

It will be an issue only if those who insist on rehashing old news keep bringing
it up.  There is no evidence whatsoever that "certification will become the
standard" for technical writers, programmers, English teachers, writers of
novels, biographers, science fiction authors, or webmasters.  Our profession is
in the middle of some profound changes, and no single standard is going to fit
us all.

> All professions seem to go through this metamorphic process, I am middle
> aged and in the process of getting certified full-time post grad.

I'm probably older than you, have been in this business for more than 30 years,
have a graduate degree which is mostly useless, and am vehemently opposed to
certification in technical writing. I own a business which hires and fires
technical writers and do not value certificates in this field.  As an employER,
I would much rather hire someone with appropriate experience, demonstrated by
some samples and meaningful conversation, than hire someone who traipses in with
some certificate indicating he/she has passed some test. In my experience, a
really good writer approaches a subject with curiosity and intelligence, and
then attempts to explain that subject to some designated reader.  There is no
way to measure the kind of mental attitude I see in really good technical
writers.  On the other hand, certificates tend to indicate that someone has
spent seat-time in a classroom learning some tool; my experience has been that
most good writers learn to use the tools of this business in the process of
producing good communication.

It is my belief that what we call technical writing today will become a relic as
we move toward other forms of communication, probably involving networks and
possibly involving more direct information transfer.  At all points along that
way, however, there will be a real need for the 'translators' which technical
writers are - translating technical concepts into material that mere mortals can
come to understand.

We are in the midst of an information revolution where our job is to explain
what we have just learned to others who aren't far behind us.  What we need to
learn keeps moving, and so does the sophistication of our audience.  There is no
possible certification program that can keep up with that kind of moving target.

Elna Tymes
Los Trancos Systems


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