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: Mon, 14 Apr 2003 15:07:08 -0400


Hi again, folks. I sort of started a subthread here about creating a TWBOK and using that as the basis for certification; then I left town for a couple of days. Time to jump back in.

In response to the Keith/Bruce exchange snipped below, I would specifically avoid including specific tool knowledge (I think I said that already). You should probably know something about the role of style guides in a tech writing organization, but that doesn't mean you have to have memorized my favorite style guide. I think it is useful to know the difference between a raster image and a vector diagram. But that does not mean you have to be a proficient user of Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator. You should know the capabilities and limitations of wysiwyg HTML editors; but that does not mean you have to be experienced with (pick one) FrontPage or Dreamweaver. You should be able to carry on an intelligent discussion about the way personality type affects the relationships between SMEs and writers; but that doesn't mean you have to have completed a Myers-Briggs training course.

In other words, there are fundamentals you ought to be familiar with in a variety of areas--that's the TWBOK concept. With respect to certification, perhaps you ought to be able to demonstrate proficiency in some number of those areas (someone said something about a quorum standard, or something like that). Maybe you ought to show that you can master _some_ tools (but without specifying what tools those are).

My point is that we ought to be able to arrive at a consensus on these broad questions before thinking about the details.

Dick

Bruce Byfield wrote:


kcronin -at- daleen -dot- com wrote:



Yes, we could put students through the wringer and make them learn a wide
base of skills. But many of those skills will become outdated within
years.

I'm not sure what skills would be outdated? I can't think of any skills I've learned in the last eight years that are outdated, except possibly specific tools. even though I haven't used WordPerfect for years, what I learned while using it is still transferable to other word processors.



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Re: Hostility towards STC: From: Bruce Byfield

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