Presentation on STC certification credentials for technical writers and technical communicators given at the 60th annual STC Summit in Atlanta, GA.

1. Certification
Essentials
STC Summit, Atlanta GA

2. Session Agenda
Introduction
Review
Certification Process
Submission Packet
Submission Evaluation
Maintaining Certification
2

3. INTRODUCTION
3

4. 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)
4

5. 5
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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6. REVIEW
What is Certification?
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7. The Value to
Practitioners
Certification is an objective,
portable, personal credential
that is associated with higher
salaries, job-hunting
advantages, and better job
opportunities
7

8. 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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9. 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 experience
in technical
communication
field
3 years of experience
in technical
communication
field
Qualifying education reduces
experience requirement by up to
2 years

10. The Process
10
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

11. Assessing Areas
of Practice
11
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

12. SUBMISSION PACKET DETAILS
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13. 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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14. CORE COMPETENCIES
Sections common to both CPTC and CPTW credentials
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15. 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.
15
Core Competency 1

16. 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.
16
Dragga, Sam; Voss, Dan. "Cruel Pies: The
Inhumanity of Technical Illustrations"
Technical Communication 48.3 Aug. 2001: 265-
274
Core Competency 2

17. 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.
17
Read Don Bush, STC Fellow
“The Friendly Editor” in back
issues of Intercom online
Core Competency 3

18. TECHNICAL WRITER CERTIFICATION SECTION
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19. 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.
19
Filippo, Elizabeth. “The Road to Personas"
Intercom 56.1 Jan. 2009: 22
CPTW Section

20. TECHNICAL COMMUNICATOR CERTIFICATION
SECTIONS
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21. 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.
21
CPTC Section 1

22. 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.
22
Filippo, Elizabeth. “The Road to Personas"
Intercom 56.1 Jan. 2009: 22
CPTC Section 2

23. 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.
23
CPTC Section 3

24. 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

25. DITA
XM
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.
25
CPTC Section 5

26. 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)

28. 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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29. 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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30. 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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31. 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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32. 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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33. 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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34. 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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35. EVALUATING YOUR SUBMISSION
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36. 36
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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37. 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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38. 38
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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39. 39
Where do I sign
up—?
To get started on your
certification:
www.stccert.org
More questions? Email
cert@stc.org