Certificati on Essentials STC Summit, Atlanta GA
Nov 07, 2014
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 [email protected]