Re: Certification for Technical Communicators

["Bonni J. Graham" <bgraham -at- ELECTRICITI -dot- COM>]

Mike Uhl issued a call to arms.  I pretty much agree with most of what he
said, except one (admittedly kind of nitpicky) thing:

" An ability to draw basic illustrations..."

Um...I kind of feel that I'm a good technical communicator even though I
can't draw for beans.  I know what the elements of a good illustration are,
I can often create same from assorted clip art, but I can't draw from
scratch.  Art is, well, an art.  I would say instead, "An ability to
incorporate appropriate graphics" or some such.  I know, I'm replacing
little words with big ones, but I'm sure SOMEONE can refine this further.
<grin>

Maybe the first step is to identify what we, as a possibly representative
sample of our profession, feel are basic skills that should be required of
anyone claiming to be TC-ers.  Here are some of my votes:

1) They should never write a sentence as long as the one I just wrote up
there in a manual <grin>

2) They should, however, be able to write clear, concise, and coherent
sentences.

3) They should know when it is time to use a graphic and how to pick or
create the correct one (and part of creating the correct one is knowing
when to call in an actual artist, if they are not themselves).

4) Most of the rest of Mike Uhl's list

What do you all think?



Bonni Graham
Manual Labour
Director, Region 8 Conference
bgraham -at- electriciti -dot- com