Re: Certification Redux

["L. Burnham O'Donald" <lodonald -at- PRIMENET -dot- COM>]

Nora Merhar wrote:
>
> I have yet to see a list of objectively quantifiable skills that
> certification could test. The ability to analyze an audience, gather
> information and organize it, etc. really is subjective. Give ten TCs
> the same audience and the same information; I'll bet you get 10
> different ways of handling it,

Not to add more heat here, but actually programmers and engineers would
probably approach a design project in much the same way; that is, each
would come up with a different way to design the thing, depending on
their individual skill sets. Some designs would be well done, with a
minimum of tightly integrated code/circuits; some would be kluges. (This
may well be why software engineering isn't regarded as "engineering" in
some circles and why it's illegal to call yourself an "engineer" in many
places..... <g> )

In a separate post, Arlen had asked what sort of benefit there would be
to a "magic certificate" --

Playing devil's advocate here: Lofty principles and concepts aside, my
gut feel is that people would _hope_ (no guarantees of course) that the
key benefit would be for the certification to impart a measure of
respect, trust, and confidence. Said another way, the benefit would be
that said certification would inspire employers/clients to respect,
trust, and have confidence (thanks, Elna) in a tech writer who has
certification. These employers/clients would very obviously of course be
those who now DON'T have respect, etc. (I'm sure we've all seen some of
those; I know I have.) Would a certificate actually cause an
employer/client to rethink the people they hire or the way they deal
with writers? I think the answer is a resounding "maybe".

Arlen asked if such benefits could not be had some other way. Well, yah,
they could, by dint of hard work and solid results in the
employer/client's vineyard, etc. But it's possible -- just possible,
mind you -- that a certificate would open a door that might otherwise be
closed. (I can hear some of you now; if the door only opened because of
a piece of paper, I wouldn't want to go through _that_ doorway!) Well,
you know, everything works sometimes.

I think a certificate's just a case of stacking the deck in our favor;
it would certainly not be any sort of substitute for experience, hard
work, and native intelligence.

And finally, certification would be OPTIONAL, much like the Editor of
Life Sciences certification, as I understand it, so there's no need for
anybody to get their knickers in a twist. If and when certification is
offered by an organization such as STC, it's completely up to the
individual to take advantage of it or ignore it.

Louise O'Donald
lodonald -at- primenet -dot- com

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