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Re: Hostility towards STC

Subject: Re: Hostility towards STC
From: Dick Margulis <margulis -at- fiam -dot- net>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Fri, 11 Apr 2003 15:38:07 -0400




guy wrote:





What COULD STC have done (or still do) to "further the professional
technical writer"?



Is certification something STC should pursue?




Okay, here's a positive suggestion, maybe for STC, maybe for the TECHWR-L community independent of STC.

Many of you are probably familiar with the _Project Management Book of Knowledge_ ("PMBOK") published by the Project Management Institute. It fairly outlines a consensus view of what project managers need to know, the tools they need to be familiar with, the disciplines they need experience in.

Could we devise a corresponding TWBOK? Yes, I know there are many kinds of tech writing jobs, just as there are many kinds of project management jobs. But we have often foamed at our mouths about What A Tech Writer Needs To Know; and some of these discussions have actually produced pretty decent, fairly comprehensive topic lists.

I am not envisioning a compendium of detailed tips and tricks for using FrameMaker and SnagIt. Instead, I think it should be possible to follow the PMBOK model and talk about high-level skills that, taken together, would qualify someone as an expert tech writer and subsets of which would nonetheless be useful job skills at a lower level.

First let's define what tech writers ought to know; then let's think about certifying people as knowing the material at one or more levels.

Sound like an idea worth bandying about?

Dick

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Follow-Ups:

References:
RE: Hostility towards STC: From: John Posada
Re: Hostility towards STC: From: guy

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