Certification Essentials

STC Summit, Atlanta GA

Session Agenda

Introduction

Review

Certification Process

Submission Packet

Submission Evaluation

Maintaining Certification

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INTRODUCTION

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Your Speaker:Rob Hanna, CIP

STC Certification Commission Vice Chairman (2011-2013)

STC Associate Fellow (2011)

Chief Information Architect – Ascan Enterprises, Toronto, ON

STC Board Member (2007-2009)

AIIM Certified Information Professional – CIP (2011)

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STC Certification Commission

Incorporated in 2011, in Virginia, as a 501(c)(6) organization

Independent of STC

Responsible for establishing certification policies, granting CPTC™ and CPTW™ certifications, and overseeing day-to-day operations

Bylaws, policies, procedures, finances separate from STC

Nine commissioners, serving two-year terms

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REVIEWWhat is Certification?

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The Value to Practitioners

Certification is an objective, portable, personal credential that is associated with higher salaries, job-hunting advantages, and better job opportunities

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Two Professional Credentials Certified Professional Technical

Communicator Launched 2011 Broad spectrum of KSAs from

planning to delivery of documentation

Certified Professional Technical Writer Launched 2013 Focused on core competencies

in technical writing

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Are You Eligible?

All practitioners who meet eligibility requirements can apply

STC membership is not required

Prerequisites: combination of full-time experience and education

Must agree to abide by Code of Conduct

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5 years of experiencein technical

communicationfield

3 years of experiencein technical

communicationfield

Qualifying education reduces experience requirement by up to

2 years

The Process

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Credentials granted for three years

Continue training and professional development with

annual maintenance fee

Commission evaluates packet

Trained evaluators assess individual sections under non-

disclosure

You send submission packet and payment

Completeness verified

You send application and payment

Eligibility verified

Commission returns evaluation

Results within 60 days

Assessing Areas of Practice

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1. User, Task, Experience Analysis

2. Information Design

3. Process Management

4. Information Development

5. Information Production

Areas of Practice

Submission Packet

1. Project Planning

2. Project Analysis

3. Solution Design

4. Organizational Design

5. Written Communication

6. Visual Communication

7. Content Development

8. Content Management

9. Final Production

SUBMISSION PACKET DETAILS

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Your submission

You have one year after your application is accepted to complete and deliver your submission to the Commission.

Each section is evaluated independently by at least two trained raters and scored as:

Pass

Borderline Pass

Borderline Fail

Fail

Refer to the candidate instructions

Available for download at http://www.stccert.org

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CORE COMPETENCIESSections common to both CPTC and CPTW credentials

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Written Communication

Demonstrate your ability to compose content and communicate in written form.

Factors include writing style, use of structural elements, appropriateness of presentation for the intended audience, and consistency.

Include in your submission:

A representative sample of your information product.

A written commentary that explains how your knowledge of objectives and audience influenced your writing style.

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Core Competency 1

Visual Literacy

Demonstrate your knowledge of visual communication principles that support written content.

Factors include templates, styles, graphics, signal words, layout, and navigation.

Include in your submission:

A representative sample of published information product that you have developed, such as a chart, table, diagram, or illustration.

A written commentary that explains how the layout and design support the structure of the information.

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Dragga, Sam; Voss, Dan. "Cruel Pies: The Inhumanity of Technical Illustrations"

Technical Communication 48.3 Aug. 2001: 265-274

Core Competency 2

Content Development

Demonstrate your knowledge of content development principles and ability to develop content.

Factors include your ability to review, edit, and verify content.

Include in your submission:

An edited copy of the provided sample.

A written commentary that explains how you collaborate, validate technical accuracy, and conduct technical and editorial reviews.

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Read Don Bush, STC Fellow “The Friendly Editor” in back

issues of Intercom online

Core Competency 3

TECHNICAL WRITER CERTIFICATION SECTION

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Audience Analysis

Demonstrate your skill in analyzing requirements for developing information products.

Factors include developing an understanding of the audience and data requirements for developing an information product.

A description of a persona, profile, or other source that details the primary audience.

A written commentary.

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Filippo, Elizabeth. “The Road to Personas" Intercom 56.1 Jan. 2009: 22

CPTW Section

TECHNICAL COMMUNICATOR CERTIFICATION SECTIONS

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Documentation Planning

Demonstrate your skill in planning projects for delivering information products.

Factors include developing a plan for creating and tracking the implementation of an information product.

Include with your submission:

A sample portion of the project plan.

A project schedule and/or list of milestones. This may include a Gantt chart or MS Project schedule.

A written commentary.

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CPTC Section 1

Documentation Analysis

Demonstrate your skill in analyzing requirements for developing information products.

Factors include analyzing audience, task, and data requirements for developing an information product.

A sample portion of a persona, profile, or other document that details the primary audience.

User requirements, use cases, user task analysis, or needs analysis characterizing task content required for the information product.

A written commentary.

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Filippo, Elizabeth. “The Road to Personas" Intercom 56.1 Jan. 2009: 22

CPTC Section 2

Solution Design

Demonstrate your ability to design high‐level solutions for implementing information products.

Factors include research methodology and synthesis of research results into an overall design solution.

Include with your submission:

An actual or simulated work sample of a project design document. The sample may be a documentation plan, document specification, or equivalent document.

Written commentary on the project including considerations for universal accessibility.

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CPTC Section 3

Information Architecture

Demonstrate your ability to design the organization of information products.

Factors include selection and construction of an organizational framework that defines the information architecture.

Include with your submission:

A project outline, storyboard, template, DTD, or other evidence of the framework for the information product.

A written commentary that explains the rationale for organization and level of detail selected for the framework.

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CPTC Section 4

DITA

XML

METADATA

WIKIS

Content Management

Demonstrate your knowledge of content management principles and ability to manage content.

Factors include

collaboration and workflow

topic based authoring‐

structured authoring

single source authoring and reuse‐

metadata

version control and archiving

Include a written commentary.

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CPTC Section 5

Production Processes

Demonstrate your knowledge of final production principles and processes.

Factors include handling for both electronic and print outputs.

Include in your submission

A commentary that explains

Electronic and print channels and production processes.

QA processes for final production.

Working with production services such as commercial printers.

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CPTC Section 6

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Preparing your submission Read and follow all the directions

on the candidate instructions

Treat each section separately

Don’t skip anything

Keep it simple and readable

Observe all page lengths

Proofread carefully

Submit only PDF files (we do not accept other formats)

Plan for success

Plan your time wisely

Review submission details

Research each submission area

Assess any works you intend to use

Draft your submission and let it sit

Self-assess your submission

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Manage your time working several hours per week allow up to

2-3 months for CPTC 1 month for CPTW

10 hours for project planning 5 hours per section for research, and 10 hours per section for preparation.

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Research

Reviewing schedules for upcoming STC webinars

Reviewing webinar archives

Reviewing scheduled chapter events

Interviewing STC mentors

Reviewing articles and presentations, and

Reading books by renowned STC visionaries.

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Common issues with work samples

Protected and cannot be used without significant redacting

Compromised by limitations of time or budget

Produced in collaboration and do not accurately reflect the quality of your work, or

Produced many years ago when standards or technology were different.

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Rework your work samples

Correct any mistakes

Eliminate any anomalies

Enhance the work samples to include any missing features asked for in the submission requirements, and

Replace product or company names with fictitious names rather than redacting them in the content.

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Packaging your submission

Give us your finest work. Only one PDF per section. Do not cross-reference other

sections in your submission. Remove all self-identifying

references. Signed PDFs cannot be

combined with other PDFs.

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Annotating your submission

Do not add comments or annotations directly to your PDF in Acrobat. Your identity is far more

difficult to obscure in Acrobat.

Change your User Name and Initials in MS Word before annotating.

Use track changes feature to show your edits.

Remove identity in MS Word

1. Click Office button

2. Click Word Options

3. Select Popular settings

4. Change User Name to Candidate and Initials to CPTC.

5. Print document to Adobe PDF.

6. Select Document showing markup from Print what drop down.

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EVALUATING YOUR SUBMISSION

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Evaluation

Your packet is received and administratively screened

Double-blind assessment

Evaluated section by section

You must pass core competencies

Results returned within 60 days

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Evaluation methodology Submission demonstrates

Minimal Competency

Evaluation is Criterion-Based

Subjectivity has been minimized

Scoring demonstrates a high level of parity between raters.

Raters and scores are continuously evaluated to maintain parity.

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Maintaining your certification Your credentials are valid for

three years

To maintain your credentials:

Ongoing professional development

Stay active in the field

Annual maintenance fee

Renewable without retest, resubmission packet, or recertification fee

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Where do I sign up—?

To get started on your certification: www.stccert.org

More questions? Email cert@stc.org