Re: Contract House, class and certification

["Janet K. Christian" <janetc -at- AUSTIN -dot- APPLE -dot- COM>]

>I'm not interested in getting into a byplay about certification
>anymore, so please don't take this thread as an invitation to
>do so. What I will say is that a large number of our
>prospective clients are asking for either education or
>certification, or at least a formalized testing process for our
>contractors. We are a contract house, keeping no writers on the
>bench. We have decided that we probably need to certify writers
>ourselves, but we will only do so if the writer goes through a
>course of technical writing that, at minimum, gives him the
>basics of writing, organizing, and desktop publishing, along
>with some technical expertise. And since we in Indiana don't
>have a single, solitary technical writing program at ANY
>COLLEGE, we at Simply Written seem to be driven into the
>position of holding classes ourselves. It's going to be a
>gold-plated female mutt, and we know it, but we don't see any
>other way. We don't envision this as a program to replace a
>good higher education, but as a course that will turn already
>adequate writers into barely adequate junior technical
>communicators. To that end, the course would probably be about
>six weeks, part-time, in the evening.

>I'm asking anyone out here who's interested in this project
>some questions:
>1. Has anyone ever heard of anything like this, and if so,
>where?
>2. Does anyone have advice about curriculum, references, or
>topics?

>We're just getting ideas firmed up, so if you have something to
>contribute you'll be in on the ground floor. We'd appreciate
>input from our colleagues about this, because we're not
>hell-bent to reinvent any aspect of the wheel. You can reply by
>email, if you don't want to post.

>Thanks in advance,

>Tim Altom
>V.P.
>Simply Written, Inc.

Several years ago, the Ventura Publisher people offered a testing process
that writers could go through to receive a "Certified Ventura Professional"
credential. Perhaps other DTP software companies (such as Frame
Technologies) should consider implementing a similar offering. If Ventura
Publisher still exists, you might check with them for the requirements they
established in the test.

Good technical writing is more than just good English skills. It also
includes the ability to take hazy, incomplete, confusing information and
transform it into organized, readable, understandable, and yes,
grammatically correct, documentation. Technical writing is an art as much
as a skill. I don't know how you could text for that, though.

And please don't refer to all writers as "him". Last time I looked, I
wasn't one...

Regards,

Janet