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Let's try to be clear about what we are discussing. The word certification has meanings that conflict with each other.
I _believe_ that what we want to be talking about is a program that awards an oak cluster or an epaulet or a croix de guerre or something to people who can demonstrate a fairly comprehensive set of skills and some years of experience. That is very different from talking about a trade school curriculum that offers a certificate of completion.
Can anyone suggest some simple, clear way of distinguishing these meanings so that we don't keep circling back?
While I'm on the subject, I also _believe_ that we are not discussing a device that becomes either a barrier to entry or a job requirement, except perhaps for certain senior positions. Rather, it would be a personal accomplishment that might result in a promotion or raise, once its value and credibility were established.
And I _believe_ that we are discussing some sort of program that we as tech writers would design and administer through some professional association rather than a tool certificate awarded by a software vendor.
Some posters have indicated they believe otherwise on these latter points; but if this discussion is going to be at all useful, we should at least agree on what it is we're talking about.
>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
>
[snip non-controversial stuff]
>
>
>As far as a standard "writing" certification....if
>regular high school and college education can't teach
>writing, I doubt a certificate program can.
>
>
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