Newsletter of the Society for Technical Communication, San Francisco Chapter
February/March 2010
| Newsletter of the Society for Technical Communication, San Francisco Chapter February/March 2010 |
Hello,
I hope this article provokes some thought about our profession, how to define it, and how to grow within it.
What does it mean to say that you are a technical writer? How do you convince a hiring manager that you have the skills for the job? If you are a hiring manager, how do you know the candidate is qualified and can write? Yes, we have all looked at writing samples, but in truth, how did we know how much of those samples consisted of original writing? We all also have seen writing tests given to us by hiring managers that were meager attempts to gauge whether we had basic English composition skills.
As a profession, we need to encourage STC headquarters to develop minimum educational requirements, continuing education requirements, testing standards, and a certification process. Only after a person meets these minimum standards, can that person be called a Certified Technical Writer. This certification process can test for and assign different levels of expertise, such as Junior, Senior, and Principal. In addition, the certification process can test for sub-specialties, such as API writing and help system development.
STC currently offers certificates for a variety of classes, but certification is what I'm advocating. A certificate and certification are two separate entities, and let's not get them confused. Certification shows that you have tested and have shown proficiency in a subject area. Per the World Book Dictionary:
certify, verb, -fied, -fying.
v.t. 1. to declare (something) true or correct by an official spoken, written, or printed statement.
We need STC headquarters to develop the standards by which we can prove to any hiring manager that we have the skills to do the job. Think, for example, about offshore technical writers. Hiring managers are literally training groups of people in other countries to do this job. Again, these hiring managers train these people to use corporate style guides and help them to develop their writing skills. They are practically teaching them technical writing from scratch. Of course, this approach is saving corporations a lot of money, but we have all seen the end result of poorly-written, or unedited, content trying to pass for professional manuals.
The process to develop a certification process is long and cumbersome. That is why we need to start this effort immediately. We need to encourage a dialog between STC headquarters, our educators, and the business community. We need to identify what companies look for when they hire technical writers. We need to know what type of additional training will make us more valuable to our customers or employers.
So, if you agree with my column, please take action. Contact STC, ask these questions at STC conferences, volunteer for committee work, and don't be afraid to grow within your profession. What I've described will take work. Each of us will need to put in both classroom hours and conference hours to maintain our certifications. The result of which will be that our skill sets, and profession, become undeniably valid.