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To me, the certification issue boils down to the issue
that some necesssary "technical writing" skills are
commonly needed (by also nonwriters), but others
depend on the actual type of writing
For example:
Project Management
Writers need project management skills. But then,
pretty much everyone employed needs project management
skills of some sort. I'm not so sure that "technical
writing project management" is all that different from
the project management needed in many jobs.
Project Analysis
John Posada writes: "My job isn't Process Analyst, but
part of what I'm doing is analyzing 30 processes and
documenting them diagrammatically."
Many of us, though, can go for years before being
tasked with a similar project, if ever. Everyone has
to do some sort of project analysis, but the needed
depth of analysis varies greatly.
Basics in Programming
In addition to the technical writers who don't write
about software or hardware, many writers never work
with code or see code when creating user assistance
materials such as user guides and online help.
Overall, I think that a general certification will
either not provide enough education for the writer or
will be too specialized, with the knowledge never
used.
I see the benefit, though, of specialized
certification. For example, if you write about APIs,
an API certification would be good. If you write about
airplane software, aviation certification would be
good. If you write about network security, network
security certification would be good.
But as someone else has pointed out, specific
industries have their own certifications.
As far as a standard "writing" certification....if
regular high school and college education can't teach
writing, I doubt a certificate program can.
Logan
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