[TCP] certification (was: ranting STC)

[John Posada]

> So, that is the biggest problem I see -- there are so many types of
> technical writers, how can we find a certification criteria that
> fits them all?

Red herring

A certification is above whether you can do medical writing, or QA
test writing, or User Guide writing, or help writing. Instead, it
addresses skills that really do apply to al of them, and this isn't
as hard to come up with as you think.

I don't care what kind of writing you do...when you are incharge of a
writing project, they all have alot in common. Like what?

-Grammar
-Usability
-Meeting deadlines
-Markup languages used to deliver the content...does XML apply only
to a subset of writing?
-Globalization/Internationalization/Localization
-Rhetoric
-Team building and team dynamics
others

Would specialization ever come into play? Maybe, but that's counter
to the purpose of certification. Certification is to prove that you
are well rounded in whatever can be thrown at you. Specialization
would only server to form a restriction that you don't want formed.

John Posada
Senior Technical Writer

"I think the problem, to be quite honest with you, is that you've never actually known what the question is."