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-----Original Message-----
From: Maughan Daniel
Sent: Wednesday, October 26, 2016 9:39 AM
To: William Sherman <bsherman77 -at- embarqmail -dot- com>; vincentpr -at- trfnova -dot- com; kathleen -dot- eamd -at- gmail -dot- com; techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: RE: Technical Writing Certifications
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The main thing I have seen that differentiates me from my colleagues (none of whom have a tech writing degree) is my general understanding of high-level TW concepts like content-reuse and modularity, server queries, style sheets, markup languages, UX design processes, and soft skills needed to do a good job in situations with barriers to communication. All of these are things I can specifically point to as having been improved by a good TW program.
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Communications degree here, with minors in business writing and technical writing while I was also rising through the ranks of the IT support department for my school. Seriously considered their offer to stay on and use the worker discount to try for an engineering degree, but moved on to full time tech writing.
As for certification, school or even training for the skills listed above, I have worked with many other writers over the years who have come from various backgrounds or degrees who get those same concepts, and worked with tech writers in the industry for multiple years who have no concept of any of them.
An actual degree in technical writing is definitely a plus. The whole certification thing really only seemed to bloom after the tech bubble burst, when there were suddenly people who had the previous title of "technical writer" when companies were willing to throw anyone who knew how to use Microsoft Word in to the position, all suddenly looking for jobs and some kind of validation that they had the skills.
I personally think the market has adjusted itself... even though tough layoff times since, the people who have those skills are pretty identifiable and those who don't have the skills never get to stay anywhere for long. Any certification may help you get your foot in the door, but unless you know how to apply the skills, you're not very useful.
- V
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