RE: Who cares about ethics?

[Kim Roper <kim -dot- roper -at- pixelink -dot- com>]

Dawn Whitlock wrote: 
> "Most professional technical communicators largely ignore the 
> subject of ethics,
> despite regular articles in the STC's Intercom magazine, 
> believing ethics to be
> largely irrelevant to their professional development."

Are "Most professional technical communicators" members of the STC?  

Is it now the role of the STC to determine ethics for "professional"
technical communicators?  If so, I must have missed the memo.

Calling technical communicators "professional" is misleading in this
context.  There is no professional regulatory body enforcing standards of
conduct or competence.  The STC is not the tech comm equivalent of the
Association of Profession Engineers or the College of Physicians and
Surgeons.  

This does not mean that tech comms should not act professionally.  Rather,
it means that there is no regulatory body to define the rules or yank our
ability to work in the field.

Thus, the answer to the question (that is, whether I agree or disagree with
the statement) is "mu":  Your question cannot be answered because it depends
on incorrect assumptions.

Cheers ... Kim

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Purchase RoboHelp X3 in April and receive a $100 mail-in 
rebate, plus FREE RoboScreenCapture and WebHelp Merge Module.  
Order here: http://www.ehelp.com/products/robohelp/


   Help celebrate TECHWR-L's 10th Anniversary starting this month!
Check out the contests at http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/special/contests/
Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday TECHWR-L....

---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as:
archive -at- raycomm -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot-  Visit
http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.